into the trails

Muzosa Budo Taijutsu on Inside Martial Arts

2011-03-08T00:53:00.000-08:00

2011-02-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA WHEN - -

1. You make over $250,000 and you still can't afford to buy a house.
2. The high school quarterback calls a time-out to answer his cell phone.
3. The fastest part of your commute is going down your driveway.
4. You know how to eat an artichoke.
5. Someone asks you how far away something is, you tell them how long it will take to get there rather than how many miles away it is.

YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK WHEN - -

1. You say "the city" and expect everyone to know you mean Manhattan.
2. You have never been to the Statue of Liberty.
3. You think Central Park is "nature."
4. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multilingual.
5. You've worn out a car horn.
6. You think eye contact is an act of aggression.

YOU LIVE IN ALASKA WHEN - -

1. You only have four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup and Tabasco.
2. Halloween costumes fit over parkas.
3. You have more than one recipe for moose.
4. Sexy lingerie is anything flannel with less than eight buttons.
5. The four seasons are: winter, still winter, almost winter, and construction.

YOU LIVE IN THE DEEP SOUTH WHEN - -

1. You get a movie and bait in the same store.
2. After fifteen years you still hear, "You ain't from 'round here, are ya?"
3. "He needed killin'" is a valid defense.
4. Everyone has 2 first names.

YOU LIVE IN COLORADO WHEN - -

1. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike atop your $500 car.
2. You tell your husband to pick up Granola on his way home, and he stops at the Day Care Center.
3. The top of your head is bald, but you still have a ponytail.

YOU LIVE IN THE MIDWEST WHEN - -

1. You've never met any celebrities, but the mayor knows your name.
2. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.
3. You have had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" on the same day.
4. When asked how your trip was to any exotic place, you say, "It was different! "

YOU LIVE IN FLORIDA WHEN - -
1. You eat dinner at 3:15 in the afternoon.
2. All purchases include a coupon of some kind -- even houses and cars.
3. Everyone can recommend an excellent dermatologist.
4. Road construction never ends anywhere in the state.
5. You don't know how to vote

75 Ways To Stay Unhappy Forever

2010-12-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

www.marcandangel.com/2010/11/29/75-ways-to-stay-unhappy-forever
1. Dwell on things that happened in the past.
2. Obsess yourself with all the things that might happen in the future.
3. Complain about problems instead of taking the necessary steps to resolve them.
4. Fear change and resist it.
5. Work hard, do your best and then condemn yourself for not achieving perfection.
6. Belittle yourself.
7. Hang out with other people who belittle you.
8. Try to control everything and then worry about the things you can’t control.
9. Lie to yourself and those around you.
10. Keep doing the same thing over and over again.
11. Be lazy and follow the path of least resistance.
12. Hold onto anger. Never forgive anyone.
13. Always be right. Never let anyone else be more right than you.
14. Compare yourself unfavorably to those who you feel are more successful.
15. Let small issues snowball into big problems.
16. Never learn anything new.
17. Never take responsibility for your own actions.
18. Blame everyone around you.
19. Don’t ask for directions and don’t ask questions.
20. Don’t let anyone help you.
21. Quit when the going gets tough.
22. Be suspicious. Trust no one.
23. Get four hours of sleep every night and convince yourself that it’s enough.
24. Never throw anything way. Even if you don’t use it, hold onto it.
25. Say “yes” to everyone. Fill all your time with commitments.
26. Try to be everyone’s friend.
27. Multitask, multitask, multitask! Do everything at once.
28. Never spend any time alone.
29. Don’t help others unless you have to. Do only the things that benefit you directly.
30. Hang out with people who complain about everything.
31. Focus on what you don’t want to happen.
32. Fear the things you don’t fully understand.
33. Always seek external validation before you consider yourself good enough.
34. Take everything and everyone in life seriously.
35. Spend your life working in a career field you aren’t passionate about.
36. Focus on the problems.
37. Think about all the things you don’t have.
38. Read or watch lots of depressing news from broadcast media.
39. Set lofty goals for yourself and never do anything to achieve them.
40. Never exercise.
41. Only eat junk food and fried food.
42. Never check-up on your health.
43. Setup your lifestyle so it revolves around money.
44. Spend more than you earn and rack up lots of financial debt.
45. Don’t say what you mean. Don’t mean what you say.
46. Frown.
47. Never tell anyone how you feel or what you’re thinking.
48. Make sure everything you do impresses someone else.
49. Always put your own needs on the back burner.
50. Get involved in other people problems and make them your own.
51. Make others feel bad about themselves.
52. Watch TV for several hours every day.
53. Gamble often.
54. Stay in the same place. Don’t travel.
55. Don’t play, just work.
56. Let your hobbies go.
57. Let your close relationships go.
58. Never finish what you start.
59. Take everything personally.
60. Do lots of drugs. Drink lots of alcohol.
61. Never say, “I’m sorry.” Never say, “I love you.”
62. Don’t work hard at anything.
63. Always wait until the last minute.
64. Believe that, no matter what, you are entitled to things.
65. Let others make decisions for you.
66. Remember the insults. Forget the compliments.
67. Let it all bottle up inside.
68. Rely on others for everything.
69. Fail to plan.
70. Don’t dream.
71. Don’t think about the future at all.
72. Always disregard other people’s opinions and suggestions.
73. Make promises you can’t keep.
74. Don’t decide on anything, ever.
75. Just keep going and going and going. And never ever stop.

:)

2010-11-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

I was talking to the little girl of a friend of mine. I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she replied, "I want to be President!"

Both of her parents are liberal Democrats and were standing there. So then I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied, "I'd give houses to all the homeless people."

"Wow - what a worthy goal." I told her, "You don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where there is a homeless guy that hangs out there. You can give him the $50 to use toward a new house."

Since she is only 6, she thought that over for a few seconds. While her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

And I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party." Her folks still aren't talking to me.

Paraprosdokians

2010-10-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect.

The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

Dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish.

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it.

Why do Americans choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!

A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

Hospitality: making your guests feel like they're at home, even if you wish they were.

Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.

Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

I always take life with a grain of salt... plus a slice of lemon... and a shot of tequila.

When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.

A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

She got her good looks from her father; he's a plastic surgeon.

You know, I'm sick of following my dreams, man. I'm just going to ask where they're going and hook up with 'em later.

I like going to the park and watching the children run and jump around, because you see, they don't know I'm using blanks.

Which side of the fence?

2010-07-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered which side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

If a Republican doesn't like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Democrat doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a Republican doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Democrats demand that those they don't like be shut down.

If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a Republican reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
A Democrat will delete it because he's "offended".

Well, I forwarded it.

On Cultural "Tolerance": When Enough Is Enough!

2010-04-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

America, Canada , all Europe .... Needs a President like this....

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Australia

Quote:

"IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians."

"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the Language!"

"Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture."

"We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us."

"This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.."

"If you aren't happy here then LEAVE. We didn't force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted."

Maybe if we circulate this , American citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths..

This is not posted for discussion, if you disagree simply delete!

If you agree, please SEND THIS ON..

Axis Of Awesome - 4 Four Chord Song (with song titles)

2010-04-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Henry Smalls

2010-04-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

Miscommunication

2010-03-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Matt Hart's tribute to ultrarunning

2009-10-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

UltraRunning from Matt Hart on Vimeo.

:)

2009-09-17T23:00:00.001-07:00

Last month a world-wide survey was conducted by the UN.
The only question was:

"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure because:

In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant.

In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant.

In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant.

In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant.

In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant.

In South America they didn't know what "please" meant.

In the US they didn't know what "the rest of the world" meant.

And finally..... In Australia they hung up because they can't understand an Indian accent.

:)

2009-09-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Nick Vujicic and Jessica Cox: Get Inspired!

2009-08-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

Evian

2009-07-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Financial Crisis Explained

2009-07-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood Into Heidi's bar.

Taking advantage of her customers' freedom from immediate payment constraints, Heidi increases her prices for wine and beer, the most-consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit...

He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed.

Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items...

One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager
(Subsequently of course fired due to his negativity) of the bank decides that slowly the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar.

However they cannot pay back the debts! Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation.

Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.

The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.

The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied against the non-drinkers.

Finally an explanation I understand. .. .....

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version

2009-06-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Komsomol Tribute: Russian Totalitarian Rock

2009-05-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Brian Regan on Flying & Phones

2009-04-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

History :)

2009-04-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

I was looking at it for 5 min and still could not see what is wrong with this "historical" photo:

Remote control: Big Brother edition

2009-04-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is a TV remote control from one of the Russian design ateliers: http://web.artlebedev.ru/everything/pultius/

Powered by 2 AAA batteries, which are loaded into it in the same way as rounds into a double-barrel hunters' shotgun.

The goal was to design a remote control with a more intuitive TV channel selection.

I am looking forward to release of the US version of their remote control, which will have to support up to 850 channels.

Liebherr: Rise of the Machines

2009-04-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

SCHOOL 1957 vs. 2007

2009-03-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

I put this here because it's true:
SCHOOL -1957 vs. 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Source: http://help.lockergnome.com/general/SCHOOL-1957-2007--ftopict53404.html

Where the heck is Dmitri?

2009-03-06T23:15:00.001-08:00

A couple of my running buddies posed this question to me recently. And they have a reason: after all I explained to just a couple of people why I slowed down my blogging and postponed my racing. After an email exchange with one of our most devoted running comrades - Kirk Fortini - he published a quick summary on SoCal Trail Headz club website. I would not be able to put it all better than he did so I won't even try. Here is what he wrote:

"Confirmed Dmitri Sighting"

Relax, guys, this one isn't a Spotlight. I must admit, however, that I did send a few little questions to our long-missing trail comrade and I thought it might be fun to feature the guy. Mr. Chechuy has been too long departed from our fellowship, after all.

Recently, I was indeed very fortunate to get a reply, though not on the order of a response to Spotlight questions. Nevertheless, he of the innovative water-crossing technique was a delight to hear from. Ever the modest man, he informed me straight away, "I am by all means less remarkable than you might think."

For those of you unfamiliar with he of whom I speak (write? type?), Dmitri of the vowel-deficient first name was last seen pacing some loser who failed at SD100 last year. There was, at first, some speculation that he was victimized by his runner for caffeinated gels, but that was just gossip that had to make the rounds. In reality, he still counts the time "running through the night at SD100" as "one of the most vivid and enjoyable experiences of my entire running career." It must have been the picture of his runner starting to melt down with closing airways and shaking with hypothermia. I could be wrong, it might have been the swearing.

But, since then, there has been no more racing for our intrepid friend of Russian extraction. There are 2 reasons:

1. Work - Though he tends to be a little elusive about his actual paid endeavor (OK, he just doesn't say what the hell it is), he admits that his employer is not directly affected by crisis (sounds like Russian Special Forces, if you ask me). Some open positions have been frozen, unfortunately, and he has had to log a lot of extra hours to get the work done. (See what I mean? SpecOps all the way.) He even says, very clandestinely I might add, that "pressure built up tremendously from about April 2008." (God, people, how much more obvious can it be?)

2. Martial Arts - Although he dropped out as a karate student some time ago, it was a decision he has regretted ever since he made it. (Hmm, maybe he's not SpecOps, after all. Maybe Bolshoi Ballet?) So after spending time with that oxygen thief at SD100, he reapplied himself to training in the martial arts last June. The end result is that he's been engaged in that, and it has eaten up what little free time he used to spend running.

The decision has its bitter/ sweet components. It was sweet because, "it was one of my almost-lifelong aspirations." Bitter, or sour, because "I miss trails, races, and all the running friends."

We miss you, Dmitri. But, I'm sure that I spoke for all those who have had the privilege of meeting you, we wish you well in whatever path you follow.

Now, when can I come over for some of that cabbage soup that you were telling me about?

From Los Pinos: into the clouds

Another type of an Ultrarunning event:)

2009-02-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

Just learned about another type of an ultrarunning event. Some might refer to it as North American Wife Carrying Championship. Others just call it marriage. The course profile is unknown, but rocky sections are guranteed, the distance is unlimited, aid-stations are scarce, and DNFs are too expensive and painful to even consider. Still a lot more fun than any other race for some reason :)))

One more video that is even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIB9UcA5iQU

Blogging :)

2009-01-09T13:49:00.001-08:00

Help child soldiers

2008-12-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

Priceless :)

2008-11-12T10:06:00.001-08:00

Be sure to cancel your credit cards before you die.

This is so priceless, and so, so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today.

A woman died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card, and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge.

The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but now was somewhere around $60.00.
A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange:

Family Member: 'I am calling to tell you she died back in January.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges stills apply.'

Family Member: 'Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.'
Citibank: 'Since it is two months past due, it already has been.'

Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?'
Citibank: 'Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!'

Family Member: 'Do you think God will be mad at her?'
Citibank: 'Excuse me?'

Family Member: 'Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?'
Citibank: 'Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor.'

Supervisor gets on the phone:

Family Member: 'I'm calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance.'
Citibank: 'The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.'

Family Member: 'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'
Citibank: (Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'

Family Member: 'No, I'm her great nephew.'(Lawyer info was given)
Citibank: 'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'
Family Member: 'Sure.' (Fax number was given )

After they get the fax:

Citibank: 'Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help.'
Family Member: 'Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won't care.'

Citibank: 'Well, the late fees and charges do still apply.' (What is wrong with these people?!?)

Family Member: 'Would you like her new billing address?'
Citibank: 'That might help...'

Family Member: ' Odessa Memorial Cemetery, Highway 129, Plot Number 69.'
Citibank: 'Sir, that's a cemetery!'

Family Member: 'And what do you do with dead people on your planet???
(Priceless!!)

Some running humor

2008-10-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

New Balance RX505

2008-08-27T22:33:00.001-07:00

I am testing new running shoes right now - something completely different from whatever I ever tried before - New Balance RX505.

RX505 is a minimalist shoe - low on cushioning, super light weight, intended and positioned for sprinting. I find these shoes perfect for business trips and family vacations. When I need to fly somewhere and the space is limited, I need something very light and space-saving, especially if it is all about just a couple of workouts. And this is when RX505 comes handy. The only problem with it - besides obvious issues with lack of cushioning on longer runs - is that my regular shoes feel heavy after a run in RX505.

Mountain lions

2008-06-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

A couple of my running buddies saw mountain lions in our area. With that in mind I would like to post a quick reminder to be cautious out there in the wilderness.

Mountain lions have a distinctive "M" shaped pad, and their claw marks do not show in the track. Walking, the lion's hind foot steps in his fore track, creating overlapping patterns.

Don’t approach a cougar. Most cougars want to avoid humans. Give a cougar the time and space to steer clear of you.

Avoid hiking alone, especially between dusk and dawn, when lions normally do their hunting. Make plenty of noise while you hike so as to reduce the chances of surprising a lion.

Never run past or from a cougar. This may trigger their instinct to chase. Make eye contact. Stand your ground. Pick up small children without, if possible, turning away or bending over.

Never bend over or crouch down. Doing so causes humans to resemble four-legged prey animals. Crouching down or bending over also makes the neck and back of the head vulnerable.

If you encounter a cougar, make yourself appear larger, more aggressive. Open your jacket, raise your arms, throw stones, branches, etc., without turning away. Wave raised arms slowly, and speak slowly, firmly, loudly to disrupt and discourage predatory behavior.

Try to remain standing to protect head and neck and, if attacked, fight back with whatever is at hand (without turning your back)—people have utilized rocks, jackets, garden tools, tree branches, and even bare hands to turn away cougars.

Hike with a good walking stick; this can be useful in warding off a lion.

http://www.mountainlion.org/facts_safety.asp

Unrelated...

2008-06-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this thing has nothing to do with trail running. But I found it so hilarious that could not help not posting it here :)

SD100: my recap from a race I never ran

2008-06-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

Pacing Kirk at SD100 this weekend was one of the most memorable moments in my running career. Well, I did not run all of the 50 miles I was initially supposed to. I joined Kirk at the Aid Station (AS) at mile 50 and DNFed with him at the very next AS at mile 56. It took us 1 hour 55 minutes to cover those 6 miles. We mostly walked it and ran just a bit through some flat sections as Kirk was not feeling good.

This was well after the sunset. The trail was going through canyons. We heard a bunch of coyotes and saw one of those looking at us from the curb ahead of us. We saw a couple of kangaroo rats or some other long-tail rodents. We saw a stripped skunk who was running on the trail 5 steps ahead of us for probably 3 minutes before he decided to turn left and give us the way. The trail was well marked with green glowing sticks we could see on the dark mountain slopes well ahead of us. The moon was too young to outshine any of the bright stars that were covering the sky above us. It was one of the most breathtaking pictures I have every seen in my life. Totally magical! I can see it in front of me right now whenever I close my eyes. I wish I could describe what it all looked like but I am no artist.

When we reached AS at the mile 56 Kirk sat down on a chair and, well, I would say collapsed for the lack of a better term. He was just sitting there trembling with his head bent down to his knees. I put on an additional sweat shirt on him, and volunteers wrapped him up in two blankets, helped him to get into a trailer and gave him some hot coffee. None of it really helped. He could not hold a half-full cup not spilling it up all over. Gabor was sitting in front of us in the same trailer. He had had a lot of doubts about whether he should have continued back then at mile 50. He tried and had to DNF at the same AS as us. Gabor told us that when someone gets exhausted like this, body fails to regulate its temperature anymore (is this what they call hypothermia?) and the only way out is to put that person in a car and max out the heater. We did exactly that and it eventually helped.

Well, DNF's are a part of ultra-running. They do not happen only to those that do not run at all. The course was challenging. Everyone seemed suffering a lot. Out of 81 starters only 43 runners managed to finish the race, while 38 had to DNF: 47% DNF rate! It is not Barkley's rate, but is still pretty remarkable considering the fact most of the participants are seasoned ultra-runners!

I met a bunch of people there starting from Lorraine Gersitz, whom I had a pleasure to share the ride to San Diego with, Charlie, who was feeling pretty good and looked fresh probably because he DNSed SD100 this year, Chris, whom I had run with at PCT50 until she lost me having got sick of my running crappiness, Paul Schmidt, who is an amazing ultra-runner with about 100 of hundred milers under his belt and a terrific RD as well, Andy and Catra, who seemed totally relaxed at mile-50 AS as if they were running a local 10K fun race, Vinnie, who was determined to the end and finished the race no matter what, George, whom I could barely recognize as he ran there alone without Leigh this time. There were a bunch of folks whom I unfortunately missed there like Greg, Marisa, Robert and a few others. Congratulations to all participants both to those who victoriously finished this brutal thing, and to those who wisely DNFed it to run another day!

Several photos I made at the mile-42 AS:

SD100-2008

Snakes in Modjeska Canyon

2008-06-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

This was taken in the burn area in Modjeska Canyon - one reason to stay off closed trails:

Both of these photos were posted by Greg on SCTH website this morning.

Caspers run with Kirk and Mike

2008-06-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

We ran 14 miles at Caspers today with Kirk and Mike K. One of my goals for the run was to discuss with Kirk our “strategery” for San Diego 100, where I will pace him for the second half of the race.

We started off on East Ridge trail, turned onto Oso trail, then turned right and ran to the Hot Springs. We ran back to the fork along Ortega highway, where we finally got back onto San Juan Creek trail.

East Ridge: Mike is jumping like a five-year-old anticipating a sighting of a mountain lion. The idea kinda grew on him. He got obsessed with “how cool it would be if we saw a mountain lion from a distance!”

Oso trail: we passed a beehive – luckily empty as it turned out Kirk is allergic to bees. After 2 hours of intense negotiations Kirk promises Mike to become more responsible and carry on his long runs and races some remedy (Benadryl?) just in case he gets stung by a bee.

Hot Springs trail: The trail got largely overgrown since I saw it last time a year ago with Linda and Andy. Mike K admits he is scared to continue as he is afraid of ticks “like a calf”. Never heard calf being that afraid of ticks but Mike knows better. Kirk is afraid of ticks too. Mike and Kirk are running behind me, whining and cursing me constantly for leading them to this overgrown trail. I am getting a strange feeling I am running with two road runners that never left the streets of Manhattan before. In 5 minutes it got worse: Kirk and Mike evidently decided to kill me and are negotiating who gets what after my death.

Mike and Kirk are checking each other out for the ticks. Each of them found two ticks on each other. They remove ticks so quickly I did not have a chance to see them – not sure they are not just full of it. I did not find any ticks on me. I hear Mike’s scream behind. We run back to him. He found a tiny green caterpillar on his shoulder. Mike calls it a “worm” and kicks the poor thing out before I can get a camera to take a picture. Hard to believe these guys belong to a trail running club. I guess they never left track before and trail running never went beyond a loop in the Central Park for them.

Mike and Kirk are showing off legs to each other discussing the rash each one got while running this trail.

Hot Springs: The water is hot but if you sniff your hand after you put it in the water, it is pretty stinky. Kirk suggests Mike should have used wipes during his quick #2 stop earlier at East Ridge.

Ortega highway: Kirk and Mike refuse to run back same way we came to the Hot Springs. Well, and me too... They cannot stand ticks and rashes. I cannot stand two big dudes whining about ticks and rashes. We dive under the gate near the Hot Springs. Mike gets stuck – I guess it would have helped if he took of his camel back before he got under it.

Shoulders do not exist on some sections of Ortega highway. We are scaring cars and bikers. I guess we have a higher chance to be hit by a car there than getting a lime disease from a tick on those trails. Kirk and Mike lay on the highway for fun. Mike is trying to cuddle with Kirk. Kirk does not seem to be hugely excited about it.

San Juan Creek trail: Mike is trying to bore us down with different pacer-runner scenarios to get Kirk and I prepared for San Diego. He goes through different what-if scenarios that might potentially require a runner to take care of his pacer. What if Dmitri breaks his leg? What if Dmitri runs out of water? What if Dmitri runs out of fuel? What if Dmitri breaks his neck? At this point I draw my knife I carry for the sake of eventual mountain lions and annoying running buddies. To our relief Mike changes the subject right after that.

We ran 14 miles at a very relaxed pace. The weather was fabulous: neither hot nor cold. I had a 20oz hand bottle and two more 20oz bottle in my backpack - 60oz all together – and a bunch of gels too. I carried it all with me on the run but did not drink a drop of water and did not eat my gels either – just for the sake of experiment. I could feel some energy drop by the very end of our run, but it was not very significant. I felt all right. I will try to do something like that in a warmer weather one day just to see how my body handles that.

More pictures from our run:

Caspers June 1, 2008

O'Neill

2008-05-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a couple of brave SCTH members – Chaz, Greg, Keira, and Kirk – decided to challenge mountain lions running through Coto de Caza and Caspers at night.

The run was supposed to be around 30 miles long and start from Charlie’s home in Ladera. I totally love night runs with a flash light and was anticipating this one for a while. But when I woke up on Saturday I had a cold and sore throat. Bummer! I still ran up to Charlie’s place, which is slightly over a mile from my home, and after that ran through O’Neill park with the rest of the gang for about an hour.

I have not been to O’Neill for a while – due to all the rains we had this year the streams widened. We had to cross a bunch of them and sure enough we got wet.
I ended up with 14 miles.

Here is Greg’s recap of their night run:
http://achtungrunner.blogspot.com/2008/05/lights-out.html

Running brain-dead at PCT50

2008-05-17T21:06:00.000-07:00

PCT50 Trail Run: www.pct50.com
Distance: 50 miles / 80.5 km
Gun time: 11:59:42
Bib number: 99
Date: May 10, 2008

Getting there

PCT50 race took place just 3 weeks after my first 50 miler at Leona Divide.
After getting about 2.5 hours of sleep that night I woke up at 2AM and I carpooled to the race start with Marisa. I expected to catch another hour or two of sleep in the car but that plan never materialized. We talked with Marisa all the way to the Boulder Oaks campground.

When we arrived there at 4:55, it was still dark. We parked at a curb and got out of the car to pick up our packets. The next thing I remember I was in the dust by the car in the push-up position. There was a hole on the side of the road where we parked at, and I got into it. I fell now at then during the trail races, but this time I overdid myself – I managed to fall and scratch my knee and palm to blood an hour before the race began :)

And off we went

It was chilly at the start – 37F as far as I remember – who would know that the temperature will climb up to mid eighties just several hours later! It was great to see a lot of familiar faces at the start: Kevin, Jerry, Robo, Robert S, iMichielle, Keira, Jenn, Eric K, Eric Lumba, Charlie, Pam, Greg, Chris, Gabor and others.

We started off at 6AM. The first stretch – probably 0.5 mile – was pretty flat. After that we hit PCT and began our 6-mile long climb to the first aid station. The mountains around us were spectacular! At some point we saw a small river in the valley below. The river looked like a glacier in the rays of the morning sun.

Some of the rock formations looked like a bunch of huge 100ft-high tree trunks bound together. We did not have a lot of chances though to enjoy the view. I could not take my eyes of the trail even for a moment without a risk of falling on my face again. The trail was fairly technical with a lot of rocks on it.

It warmed up and I took off my gloves and long-sleeve shirt at the first aid station. I saw Pam and Greg there. Before I reached the second aid station (another long climb) I tripped and ran several yards bend down to the ground wondering if I ever manage to restore my balance or not. Eventually I fell and scratched my arm and knee. The nipple of my hand bottle was full of dirt too. So I had some rest there, washed and disinfected my scratches.

Todd’s Cabin

On my way to Todd’s Cabin I met Ben Stegner, who happened to be from our running club as well, and we spent the next hour talking about running, kids, work and other stuff.

Todd’s Cabin is the most unique and extreme aid station I ever saw. You need to turn from the trail and run downhill some 100 or 200 vertical feet to reach it. Oh, and to get back to the trail you need to run all the way up.

At Todd’s Cabin we caught up Chris, who is responsible from bringing Ben into the trail running. Chris is an 11-times Ironman finisher and a very strong runner too. When they run with Ben, they use code names instead of the real ones – John and Jennifer. They tried to explain me the reason. It had something to do with secret services and X-files. But my brain was already malfunctioning by then and I did not get the point.

I managed to keep up with these guys almost all the way to Penny Pines.

Penny Pines

The trail heading to Penny Pines goes high above the desert with a bunch of most awesome viewpoints. I guess this particular part of PCT is also called Desert View Trail.

This is when we saw the first of the head runners going back already. I recall Kevin, Jerry, Michelle and Keira, as well as several less familiar faces.

Penny Pines is the 4th and 5th aid station at the same time. You get there and run another 2+ miles to the turn-around point, and then run back to the same aid station again. I met Erik K there. He looked strong but announced he is about to DNF as he was peeing blood. Definitely a very wise decision, but we all felt sorry for Eric anyways.

Back at the Dale’s Kitchen

My run back to the Dale’s Kitchen was uneventful. I was tired, overheated and dehydrated. At the Dale’s Kitchen I met Kirk, Gabor and … someone else, but I do not remember whom (was it Paul?). I was neither lucid nor responsive. People had to ask me every question twice. One of the volunteers at aid station said that I was “brain-dead”. And it was not too far from the truth.

Gabor noticed my head is full of salt crystals. I did not eat any salt tablets – usually I suffice with PowerBar Gels – and ran out of electrolytes. They made me eat 3 tablets right at the aid station and 3 more tablets in 30 minutes after that.

Road to hell

As we left Dale’s Kitchen, I tried to keep up with Kirk and Gabor, but they lost me within the next mile after it. I was going for another mile at my own pace, but it did not take me long to realize that I am done. I could not stand this heat and this trail anymore. I could not stand running another hundred yards even downhill, and I was sick and tired of myself. I wanted to DNF immediately. The only problem with that was I still had almost 6 miles to go to the next aid station, while returning back to Dale’s Kitchen did not even occur to be an option for me.

I walked most of those 6 miles, even flat and downhill sections. It took me about 1:30 to get to Fred Canyon Road.

I felt like crap and had a bunch of flies circling around me, who either fully shared my opinion or took me for a corpse. The flies were very annoying. I could not just sit down on a boulder and have a rest without them landing on my face. I became angry, started to curse them aloud and smashed at least 3 of them on my cheeks and forehead.

But my own whining was a way worse than the flies! Why cannot I DNF right here? Why a hell the aid stations are so far apart on this bloody course? When will I get there already?

I had enough time to come up with the list of the reasons for my DNF and my performance issues. I already mentally wrote an explanation for my fellow club members in my blog and rehearsed how I am going to explain it to my wife and daughter that were waiting for me at the finish line.

To take my mind off it all, I switched from whatever music I was listening at the moment to an audio book I had with me: “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind” (by Al Ries and Jack Trout). And the battle for my mind it was!

Last aid station

I entered the last aid station with the words: “Number 99 is down!”
- How do you feel?
- I am dead! I am quitting!

It was great to see Michelle M, Alexa and Sue who volunteered at that aid station. They sat me down, gave me some water. Someone tried to convince me I have only 6 more miles to go – mostly downhill – and plenty of time to cover them. But I already set my mind of quitting and did not want to listen another word about running any further.

One of volunteers asked me a bunch of questions about what I had to eat and drink for the last couple of hours. They gave me water, cold Coke, more water, salted potato, and Coke again.

People were trying to convince me to continue. Adam – Alexa’s boy-friend – even threatened me with a knife he used there to cut oranges. But I was pretty stubborn in my decision…

.. and then Michelle put a red bandana soaked in ice water around my neck. It was like magic – I started to feel life is coming back to me. So 7 more minutes and 2 ice-cold bandanas later I was running again.

The Finish

Thanks to Michelle, Alexa, Sue, and other volunteers who revived me at the last aid station, I did manage finish, and even break 12 hours (by mere 18 seconds though)! It took me an hour to I cover the last 6 miles and I even passed 8 runners doing that (that’s why ear buds are illegal at some races, especially when you max out the volume on Metallica and Anthrax).

I got my medal from John “El Cubano” Martinez, the RD of the PCT50, and got hugs from my wife and daughter. It felt so great to be finally done with this thing!

Besides shaking hands with everyone, there were two more things I wanted to do before leaving: try the famous Cuban roasted pork and watch Kirk to finish the race: I owed Kirk some stuff from my first aid kit. Kirk’s knee was covered with blood but he refused having it taken care of before the finish.

Kirk looked strong when he was running the last yards to the finish line. But after he crossed it, he could not stand, could not sit and could not talk for a while. A bunch of folks picked him up and dragged his body to a chair (there is no better way to say it). If I saw it before Leona, I doubt I would dare to run a 50M race this year. I was not sure back then if we should dial 911.

However now the picture of poor Kirk after finish feels more inspiring to me than anything else at PCT! I feel ashamed I wanted to DNF at the last aid station so badly! By the end of the race I seemed to be in a pretty good physical form compared to Kirk. And if Kirk did not DNF despite all his struggle, what freaking excuse did I have to do it? I did not have any problems with knees or feet (legs hurt, but nothing extraordinary), I did not have any significant blisters, I did not pee blood, I did not have any stomach issues, I did not even puke. Yup, I was short on electrolytes (my head was covered with salt), and was dehydrated too. But who freaking was not?

Anyways, they say that ultrarunning is 70% psychological and 30% physical. (Not sure about percentages, do not quote me on that.) If I could handle psychological component of it as well as our I-will-never-quit-iron-man Kirk, I would be a much better runner, and a much better person too!

More photos from the race:

PCT50 '2008

Very belated recap from El Moro

2008-05-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

On I did my last long run before the PCT50 race at El Moro. I met there Pete and two of his friends from his triathlete club – Lisa and Julie – both IronMan finishers.

We did a short but nevertheless hilly loop of just 9 miles. We ran down to Laguna Canyon, crossed Laguna Canyon Road and climbed the infamous Stairs trail in Aliso Canyon, and then just ran all the way back.

When climbing the Stairs, I had a lot of flashbacks from those long climbs at Leona and Mt.Dis, climbs that go on and on and on, and all you want is to get to the end and look in the eyes of that sadistic RD that included that stretch of the trail into the race course.

It is like in that Russian anecdote:
Imagine Russian farmers market. People sell grains, vegetables, chickens, cattle and stuff. And there is a big very gloomy man making his way through the crowd and dragging a huge bear on a chain after him. People stop him asking if he sells bear or something. – No, I just want to find that man, who sold this bear to me last year as a hamster.

A lot of those courses remind me that hamster (when you register for a race and check the course profile from home) that all of a sudden turns out to be a huge bear when you eventually get there.

Here are some more photos from our run:

El Moro: May 4, 2008

P.S. I am still working on my recap from PCT50 race and will paste it here shortly.

Rattler in the heat

2008-04-27T21:02:00.000-07:00

We were planning on running Los Pinos today, but I had to opt out as we had friends from another state staying over with us for a couple of days and I could not sneak out this morning. After they left I went for a shorter run at around 10AM.

Not sure about the temperature – something in 90s. As I was making my way through the hills that trim Ladera from the east, I felt pretty close to what BBQ chicken should feel on a grill. There was no wind on those hills and the heat was coming both from sun above and from heated fire road under my feet. I doubt I would survive Los Pinos if I joined Kirk, Marisa and Chris today.

I met a pretty sizable rattlesnake at the Ladera Ranch reservoir. Someone met this snake before I did, and it did not end any good for the snake. I will not beat around the bush: I hate snakes and feel much better when they are dead or caged. So I did not feel especially sorry about this guy…

I had time for only 7.5 miles today. I enjoyed the scenery but running itself was painful in the heat. Bottom line: I should find time to run in the heat more often. Otherwise the only time I run in conditions like this is a race, and it quickly wears me out…

Leona Divide 50

2008-04-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

www.leonadivide.com

Distance: 50 miles / 80.5 km
Gun time: 10 hours 45 min
Bib number: 29

I got about 3 hours of sleep, woke up at 2am – I had really been worrying I would just ignore my four alarm clocks and miss the race – and left home at 3am.

I reached the start area at 5:20am and saw a bunch of familiar faces there before the race. The SoCal ultra-running community seems to be pretty tight: after just a couple of races I recognized at least 25 people – well, quite a few of were from our SoCal Trail Headz club (formerly known as OC Trail Runners) – but a lot of folks were the runners I remember from Unknown, Orange Curtain, Ridgecrest and Mt.Disappointment.

We ran first 13 miles on fire road and I was feeling great. But after we hit the single-track trail with those endless ups and downs I started to struggle. It was a mental thing – I guess I just freaked out about the fact that it is 50 miles and my legs were soar already, and I was out-of-breath on the up-hills. By mile 17 negative self-talk reached the point when I started to question why a hell I am doing ultras at all and whether I should just DNF. Luckily I ran next 15 miles after that with Pete from Bakersfield – conversing with him took my mind off all the negativity.

Aid station #6/8 was a lot of fun: they organized Hawaiian beach party there – men were wearing bras made of coconut halves, which looked pretty much the same as Charlie’s and Greg’s bra-style camelbacks, by the way :)

After the turn-around point at mile 35.5 I felt completely broken. My feet, legs, knees were in pain. My stomach went south. I felt pretty miserable and could only walk.

After the long downhill to the aid station #5/9 I felt better again as we had just slightly more than 7 miles to the finish. I power-walked most of the ascent to aid station #4/10 and even started passing other runners.

On the final 3-mile descent I maxed out volume of Metallica and Anthrax in my headsets and squeezed all the remaining juices I still had left in me. I really wanted to break 11 hours and was not sure how many miles I needed to run to the finish. I ended up sprinting downhill and crossed the finish line with a gun time of 10 h 45 min. This was one of the strongest finishes ever - I guess my pace for the last 200-300 yards was around 7min/mile.

After I finished I just felt sick... I did not drink much for the last 6 miles of the race and could not drink after it either. Neither could I eat. The hunger caught me two hours later and I had to stop at an In-n-Out drive-through on my way home were I devoured two double-double burgers with grilled onion and no cheese :)

Right now when I am closing my eyes I see this never-ending trail running under my feet. And I have to open my eyes each time: Damn! Is not it supposed to be over yet? Has not I finished this thing yet?

P.S. Somewhere close to the aid station #6 I met this little guy on the trail. I never saw anything like that before and thought it was a dead lizard someone had stepped on. I carefully removed him from the trail to make sure he would survive Leona Divide race. Do you know what it can be?

Here are some more photos from the race:

LD50M 2008

4620 miles, 111 days, 120 degrees and 3 men

2008-04-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Just read a pretty cool article about 3 guys who ran across Sahara Desert, having covered 4620 miles in 111 days: www.runnersworld.com/engle

It almost sounds like running Badwater or MDS everyday for almost 4 months in a row.

...At 5 a.m. the vehicles would rev up and the three runners would begin their journey. For the first 20 minutes, they would walk in an effort to shake off the rust. "By 5:30 we'd be running," Engle says. "Our support vehicle would go 10-K ahead, we'd catch up, have something to drink, then let it go another 10-K ahead. We repeated that process all day." Come noon the trio would take a break to eat lunch, stretch tightened muscles, and nap. "It'd often be 120 degrees in the sun," says Engle. "It was like sleeping in a sauna." From 2:30 until 9:30, the trek would continue. "Dinner was the worst," says Engle, who lost 35 pounds in the first 35 days. "Couscous and goat, couscous and goat, couscous and goat. If I ever see either again I might go into convulsions..."

www.runnersworld.com/engle

Blooming run in El Moro

2008-04-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

El Moro… El Moro is blooming! As a matter of fact it is freaking beautiful! Bight yellow hills, bright orange poppies, etc.

We started at 5:30am: Jeff, Ryan, Marisa, Lisa, Pete, Chris and me. We did our usual 10-mile loop, and then went for a smaller second 7-mile loop in Laguna Canyon on my most favorite single-track trail. I did not initially plan to stay for the 2nd loop but I can never say no to Laguna Canyon even despite I know I will have to pay back for the beauty of this awesome downhill trail at the long uphill that follows it.

Running uphill with Ryan and Jeff is difficult. It is not even as they are pretty fast and I have hard time keeping up with them. Both of them – and Ryan in particular this morning – never stop cracking jokes. Like we noticed a big black bug on the trail, and the next thing you hear is that Ryan establishes a price fund of $10 and a pack of Hummer Gel for anyone who would eat the poor thing.

At some point we lost Jeff. I turned back and saw him standing in the middle of the trail behind us, bent to the ground not being able to stop laughing. Beware: this is Ryan’s secret weapon he uses to neutralize competitor runners trying to pass him by.

Marisa was being Marisa – there is no better way to put it. Just yesterday she completed Old Goad 50-miler, got her 2nd female finisher trophy at the finish, iced her legs a little and went for an additional 12-mile run right the same evening. And after running those 100K yesterday, she looked pretty fresh this morning!

A picture of ultra runners' ghosts at 5:25am:
Blooming El Moro:
Lisa storms another hill:
Orange poppies by the trail:
Jeff, Ryan and Lisa on the 2nd loop:
Ryan's signature photo of Jeff, me and Lisa:
Two miles to the cars, Park Rangers passed by on a truck. It got pretty hot and they asked if we were ok and did not need any water. How nice of them!
More photos:

El Moro: April 13, 2008

GoLite Sundragon review

2008-04-12T22:29:00.000-07:00

I have been testing my new GoLite Sundragon shoes for a while.

The experiment with them seemed kinda risky at first:
1) First shoes I bought via Internet without trying them on
2) Sole with huge rubber spikes looks pretty unconventional

The thing is I met Robo at Unknown-K, who was running in those shoes and really recommended them. Just as Robo said I found them for only $30 on eBay + $11 shipping. This feels like quite a bargain considering their MSRP is $120, and I would not imagine buying shoes like that in any of specialized sports brick-&-mortar stores at a price below $90 even when on sale. So I decided to risk it.

So far so good!
My feet are extremely sensitive to inner stitches on shoes, and Sundragon shoes do not seem to have any at all.
The shoes are pretty light: 11.8oz is on the low end of the spectrum for trail running foot wear. Compare it to 13.5oz weight of Asics Trail Trabuco 10, for example.

The sizes of GoLite shoes are pretty strange. I usually buy running shoes of 10.5 size, but my Sundragon's are marked as 10-10.5. How comes? They have a PreciseFit system, which is just 2 sets of additional inlays you stick under your insoles. So the shoes I bought are 10.5, but the size can be reduced to 10.25 or 10. This is pretty cool, except that after I used the inlays, size 10 of these shoes feels still a little too big as if it were Asics' size 11.

But the main thing about these shoes is definitely the sole:
1) Long interlocking rubber claws provide the best traction on the trails I ever experienced – whether I run uphill or downhill
2) They used combination of soft and hard rubber, which ensures also good traction on wet concrete too
3) The claws adapt better to uneven surface of trail and help to stabilize your body: they somehow smooth surface unevenness

The shoes are still available for the same bargain price from Designer Athletics on eBay:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?satitle=golite+sundragon
($30 + $11 shipping)

Tagged

2008-04-07T00:14:00.000-07:00

I had been tagged by Olga Varlamova in this post.

Here are the rules:
1) Write your own six word memoir
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4) Tag at least five more blogs with links
5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I was puzzled for most of the weekend trying to come up with something original and funny, but meaningful at the same time.

I was puzzled for most of the weekend trying to come up with something original and funny, but meaningful at the same time. I did not manage to nail all three goals together and ended up with something that did not match my first two criteria. How original is it if the first half of it was stolen from a bumper sticker of iMichelle's car, and the second reminds memoir of Bad Ben? But how creative can you be if all you've got are just 6 words?

Anyways, here we go:
“Life is short, don't waste it!”

What I was trying to say is much better reflected in Kim's blog in here:

I will tag Jeff, Greg, Steph, Eric and Lambert.
Sorry, guys, but it is your turn now :)

The Death Star

2008-04-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

SoCal Trail Headz (SCTH) had a big group run at the Black Star Canyon again on Saturday. This time I had enough time to run all the way to the point called Death Star. It is a little summit at the Main Divide with a huge white ball with antennas of some kind – not sure whether it is meteorological stuff or TV/radio antennas. As usual the summit was covered by a cloud blanket. As we passed the Death Star, we continued running along Main Divide for a while and pretty soon where passed by a couple of young runners from a local high school's track & field team, and few minutes after that by two more guys. The kids looked pretty fresh compared to us, and to our surprise did not carry any water bottles, despite they were running around 12 miles that day. However they had a kind of an aid station – a truck waiting for them. Probably this is the secret of running without any water.

The views were spectacular: emerald valleys and surrounded with vertical rocks and huge boulders. Back Star is becoming one of my favorite trails. And it is one of the most ideal places for group trail runs as we run all the way on fire roads which allows for running side-by-side having a little chat on the way.

This time we had two guests invited by Charlie – Shannon and Olivier, who also live in Ladera Ranch. Shannon had run her first marathon and was training for her first trail ultra – Old Goad, I guess. Not sure how many races Olivier completed before, but they both kicked out butts on the ascent. I had a difficult time trying to keep up with them, while Shannon ran up effortlessly with a very consistent pace.

Charlie and Greg, SCTH twins separated at birth, are showing off their matching grey man-bras. Charlie boasted he does not take his one off even when he goes to bed at night.

Here is the 6am group once we reached Main Divide: me, Shannon, Greg, iMichelle, Keira, Chaz, and Olivier. After so called 6am group left the Black Star trailhead (well, we left it at 6:15 or so), there were at least two more waves of SCTH runners – at 6:30 and 6:45. We met a few of them on our way back, but unfortunately still missed some including Marisa, who did not turn right on Main Divide and continued on Black Star Canyon Road in North direction towards Corona.

When I got back to the car, my Garmin was showing exactly 19 miles at an average pace of 10:01 min/mile. Greg averaged at 9 min/mile. If the weather allows I will strive to break 10 next time too – I was 2 seconds a mile too slow this time. The decent was pretty easy and fast, but deceitful at the same time – my legs ached on Saturday after run as if I just ran 50 miles.

More photos from our run:

SoCal Trail Headz at Black Star, April 5, 2008

Into the clouds

2008-03-30T22:01:00.001-07:00

We ran Los Pinos trail again today – this time with Kirk. No one else showed up. And this is very understandable: the weather was pretty nasty in the morning – it was cold and drizzling. I barely managed to suppress a temptation to go back to bad when I opened the door this morning.
We started from Lazy W Ranch, ran all the way to the Main Divide and then back.
~ Overall elevation gain: about 5,000ft
~ Total mileage: 17.5 miles
~ Our time today: 5:19:05 (this does not include our pit stops)
It was raining, but not as windy as the last time. I got wet through pretty quickly, as the trail is overgrown and you cannot run through these bushes without getting completely soaked with all the water from them.
After mile 4 it got pretty dark as we ran into a cloud. It felt like a sauna, except it was a way colder.
Even despite the weather condition we could not help noticing on our way up – through the tears – that the trail is freaking beautiful as everything was blooming on it.
On our way back we got passed by three mountain bikers. Should I add they were actually biking three, on those steep ridge trails? I am getting goose bumps on my back from just thinking about trying to ride a bike on the Los Pinos trail!
More photos from our run:

Los Pinos: into the clouds

Trail Headz in Black Star Canyon

2008-03-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Trail Headz had a group run in Black Star Canyon today, and it was a complete blast! I never ran in Black Star Canyon in a good weather conditions before. And the company was a way more attractive than the last time (no offence, Jeff:)

Unfortunately I had to cut it short and did not run all the way to the Main Divide with the rest of the gang and ended up with just 8 miles this morning. Did I mention there were around 20 runners from the club?

Here are a few more photos from the run:

SoCal Trail Headz in Black Star Canyon, 29-Mar-08

Los Pinos: directions to Lazy W trailhead

2008-03-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Access:
The upper trailhead is on North Main Divide road 5.8 miles from Ortega Highway (Hwy 74). The lower trailhead is in Hot Springs Canyon, 1.5 miles beyond the San Juan Fire Station off the Ortega Highway on the Lazy W Ranch. Trail ends on private property.

The Forest Service guidelines suggest you should call the Lazy W Ranch in advance of visit for permission to cross their property, but Lambert and Greg say that as soon as you park on Lazy W parking lot (which is not private) you can just walk through without any prior arrangements and no one will get offended.

Coordinates:
+33° 36' 6.39", -117° 30' 37.55" (33.601775, -117.510431)
If you post it in Google Maps, it will show you an approximate location of the Lazy W trailhead parking. You need an Adventure Pass to be able to park there.

Maps:

View Larger Map

Note:
The parking is a bit tricky to find. After you turn from Ortega Hwy onto Hot Springs Canyon Rd, you will need to drive up about a mile to the parking lot. The parking lot will be on your right under a bunch of trees. There will be a small rest room there as well. If you do not see it probably you are not there yet. On the other hand if you see any gates (especially closed ones) in front of you, the chances are you already passed the parking lot.

A pocket first-aid kit for ultras

2008-03-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

The scratch I got at the Unknown race is not healing as fast as I expected it to, although it has been 10 days since I got it. I guess it did not help that I could disinfect the wound only over 7 hours later when I got home.

So two doctor visits and two cans of antibiotics later I came up with a short list of things I will always have with me at every ultra or long training run in the mountains:

- Neosporin (or Brave Soldier or any other antiseptic healing ointment)
- Alcohol wipes (individually packed)
- Gauze pads (individually packed)
- Medical adhesive tape (I prefer paper-based ones)

- Tetanus shot (you should be getting one every 10 years):
http://infectiousdiseases.about.com/od/faqs/p/tetanus.htm

The Stairs

2008-03-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

The Stairs Trail goes down from the West Ridge Trail down to the bottom of Laguna Canyon: I enjoyed climbing it up a way more than running down: at least it felt less suicidal.

It was strange to see so many bike tracks on those rocks. I wonder how it should feel riding a bike down this trail!

VO2Max at Back Bay, Vol.1

2008-03-20T23:27:00.000-07:00

I joined Jeff for his weekly VO2 Max workout today. Two observations:

1) I hate speed-work!
2) I should definitely do it more often!

We started at YMCA and ran all the way around Back Bay and back, and ended up with around 9.5 miles of overall mileage.

We did eight 1/2-mile VO2Max repeats with 1/4-mile jog intervals in between. I averaged at 6:40 min/mile, ranging from 6:20 to 7. Just in case: no, 6:40 was not my jog pace, but my VO2Max pace :) I am just that slow!

Jeff was cracking jokes all the way, which did not help either. It was like we see next 1/2 mile marker and urgently strive to stop laughing to be able to start the next speed interval.

As much as I am in love with trails and mountains, sometimes I miss my old road running days, and Back Bay in particular!

Purple poodle-dog bush: beautiful & dangerous

2008-03-19T23:40:00.000-07:00

Just found an interesting atricle in OC Register

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/oldar-flower-bush-2001799-people-fire

Purple-flowered poodle-dog bush, growing in burn areas, is hazard to humans.

A pretty purple-flowered bush blooming on the hills of the burned areas in Santiago and Modjeska canyons is a danger to people, according to the Department of Forestry.

The flower, commonly known as poodle-dog bush, is an irritant akin to poison oak, said forester Eric Oldar.

"This time of the year, the floral stalk is brilliant and it's very attractive, especially along hiking trails or roads where people make a stop," Oldar said. "They'll go out and actually pick it and take it home as a flower arrangement, not knowing that contact, for the vast majority of the public, will cause a poison oak reaction."

Symptoms range from itching to a rash or blisters lasting as long as two weeks. George Ewan with the Orange County Fire Authority said the pain is reminiscent to coming in contact with stinging nettles.

"It's like that that except it doesn't wear off," Ewan said. "It goes for quite a while."

Oldar said the bush is typically dormant, but bloomed as a result of the Santiago Canyon fire in October.

"It becomes prevalent after a major disturbance like fire or something that takes the area back to the barren ground," Oldar said. "It will blossom, grow, and eventually be replaced by other dominant vegetation until another disturbance occurs."

Oldar said the prevalence period could last as long as a decade, which is one of the reasons his department is trying to get the word out about the bush. Another reason is because of the attractiveness of the flower.

"This time of year, it can be a greater attracting to the public," he said. "Later in the season, the flowers drop and the shrub will continue to exist, but it has no particular characteristic that would cause the public to come in contact with it."

Oldar said people should go to their doctor if they start to itch. An over-the-counter remedy is calamine lotion or anything that has a cortisone derivative.
Ewan said avoidance is the best remedy.

"If you're going to go out into the foothills or into the burn area, be careful," he said. "There's a cute little flower out there that's purple and if you touch it, it's going to get you."

Fartlek Team Game Rules

2008-03-17T00:07:00.000-07:00

I got introduced by one of my colleagues to Fartlek Team Game recently.
The guy that told me about it is an incredible runner himself with a 2:16 marathon PR under his belt, and he used to coach young pro-level athletes.

Fartlek Team Game is a very efficient speed-work exercise and a lot of fun at the same time.

1. Each team consists of two runners that pass a baton to each other

2. If there are multiple teams, it is recommended to shuffle runners either selecting partners flipping a nickel, or grouping the fastest and slowest into the same team

3. The Game takes 45 minutes sharp with no breaks

4. The Goal is to make baton travel around the track as many times as possible

5. The runner with the baton is running around the track at VO2Max level, while the second one is strategizing whether to run and meet the 1st runner half way or jog in the same direction as their partner to get caught a bit later

It is recommended to do speed workouts at least once a week.
I plan to integrate them into my weekly training (either with someone else or solo) starting this week.

The Unknown

2008-03-16T09:37:00.001-07:00

We ran in Charlie’s Unknown-?K race and it was just perfect: extremely neatly organized, challenging and at the same time a lot of fun. And I had a chance to see quite a few familiar faces there too.
There were only 30 runners divided into two 15-runner groups. Chaz calls it a supported group run, not a race.
I will not bore anyone here with all the details and detailed course description – just a couple of highlights.

I took off too fast – I should have put something slower or run without music for the first 3-5 miles – and Metallica’s Creeping Death is not the best pacer for the first miles of a race. But I had once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pass iMichelle and Keira and I used it – even though they caught me at mile 10. They did not actually race as they are running a 100 miler right the next weekend. But when they do race I never see them on the trail, only at the finish line if I do not come there too late when they are gone already.
Mile 6: the run was so beautiful that I got caught in the moment on a rocky ridge trail and fell. I do fall from time to time but this time it was a notch worse than usual. I could still run ok, but I had scratches on my both palms, left elbow, and some scary deep and long bloody scratches on my left leg. And later on – around mile 15 – I fell on it once again, although the second fall was not that bad. Many thanks to Marisa who cleaned up the blood and dirt from the wound at the 1st Aid Station!
Mile 19 – right after the 2nd Aid Station – there was a stream crossing with some pretty unreliable wet small rolling stones. As I knew about it in advance, I planned to cross it in big white trash bags over my shoes. It almost work, but I still got wet a little bit as small stones punched wholes in the trash bags and let some water inside.
Finish – mile 33. I came there in 7 hours and 5 minutes or something like that. Just like at Mt. Disappointment and Ridgecrest I had some issues trying to find the finish line :) The food at the finish was prepared by a real gourmet chef, and was of a restaurant quality. I wish I was not so upbeat and could feel the taste more – I was just devouring it.
Overall the experience was completely wonderful. Looking forward to doing this thing next year as well!

Note: the Unknown course is 33-mile long (which is 53km) and has 6624 feet of total elevation gain.

More photos from the race:

The Unknown ?K

Greg published his recap from the race too. Greg also published his second recap with more photos.
Also check Lambert's web site with the detailed map of the course, its elevation profile and even more photos.

A view from the top of the world

2008-03-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

A bit belated recap of our long run on Sunday:

6AM felt a way too early and daylight time change did not help either. No wonder Linda refused to run this early! The parking lot at Awme was dead empty. It was dark and pretty foggy. I ran on Also Creek Bikeway with my headlight. I could barely see the trail ahead – all I saw was the bright fog in front of me. Next time I will wear headlight on my belt! So I ran 6 miles by myself to get some additional mileage and then returned to the cars to meet the rest of the group.

7AM: Jeff, Marisa and Linda are already there. Noticed I am a bit sweaty for the run start. After I explained my additional mileage thing, got reprimanded by Jeff and Marisa I had not told them in advance. It looks like I am not the only crazy one.

This time we checked out both Cave Rock and Dripping Cave trails. Marisa was leading the way and – as she always is – was jumping around inspecting every cave on our way. My incident with cacti I felt into in Laguna Canyon trying to climb a rock following Marisa did not teach me a thing.

Marisa climbed another rock, while I slipped and hurt my knee. It was somewhat embarrassing to get a hand from Jeff on a little hill Marissa just climbed on her own.

We were running in a fog, but as we started ascending Mathis trail, we got above it and enjoyed the most breathtaking scenery. All the creeks and canyons below we covered by a thick blanket of white clouds. The clouds were flowing over the ridges from one canyon into another. And everything above the clouds was lit by bright morning sun.

It is not like we need some additional cheering after Mathis ascent, but the sun did cheer us up anyways :)

As we got closer to the "top of the world" point, we spotted Soka University in a distance. It was surrounded by clouds from all the sides, but it is sitting on a hill that was rising above the clouds. It reminded me Minas-Tirith fortress from the Tolkien’s books.

Marisa just ran down the Cholla trail and was snooping around. She is always investigating the area around the trails. Only my 2.5 year old daughter behaves like that! After kids turn 4 they tend to become less curious and restless, but Marisa is definitely an exception! I am not sure what she was doing in those bushes (oh, not what you think!) but she is definitely happy about being caught in action.

Another highlight of our run was the bright green meadows on Wood Canyon with all the grass covered with morning dew and shining bright in the morning sun. It was also one of those "moments that take your breath away"!

As we got back to the parking lot, my GPS was showing 11.85 miles (in addition to those six I ran earlier that morning on my own). Jeff found it funny when I started circling around parking lot to get additional 0.15 of a mile we were missing to get 12 :)

SIDEWAYS
As we were running and chatting with Jeff – I quoted something from Sideways: “Strawberry, yeah!” It turned out Jeff never watch Sideways and never even heard of it. I was shocked. I turned to Marisa and Linda and shouted: “Guys! Can you imagine that? Jeff never watched Sideway!” I stumbled and almost felt when I hear back from them: “Side...what? Is it a movie?” It turned out Marisa did watch it once but did not recall the name at once and commented it was a “sick movie”. Linda saw just a part of it on an airplane. Sideways is a beautiful movie about California, vineyards and wine. Do you know that after Sideways became popular, sales of Merlot when down in California at the expense of an increase in Pinot Noir market share: “I am not drinking f$%g Merlot! If anyone orders Merlot I am out of here!” Anyways if you did not watch it, I would totally recommend it – just do not watch it when your kids are around – 99% of it is decent – there are just 2 or 3 moments that are R-rated although pretty funny anyways.
More photos from our run:

Aliso & Wood Canyons, March 9, 2008

Just for reference: a very decent map of Aliso and Wood Canyons:

Los Pinos Rock 'n' Roll

2008-03-02T20:35:00.001-08:00

We had a great time at Los Pinos this morning. I met Linda, Andy, Tim, Gabby and Steph Kinley in Las Flores and then we carpooled to the Lazy W Ranch. Actually I took my car as I was not sure how it was going to turn for me. I kinda injured (stretched) the Achilles’ tendon on my left leg last Thursday. I was running at my home hills in Ladera Ranch late at night – the ones that go under the power lines – and I failed to recognize a gap in the trail. And when I was running on Friday my leg was really soar and I was not sure at all I would be able to run on Sunday let alone running one of the toughest trails around – Los Pinos! On the other hand I was hoping I would be able to run all the way to Main Divide and consequently will need to leave after everyone else. That’s what actually happened and my tendon did not bug me at all. Another miracle of RECOVER-ease?
One of the first things that became pretty evident right at the parking lot was that I looked overdressed and over-equipped. I had long pants, long-sleeve shirt, camel bag with 40+oz of water, two 20oz hand bottles with Gatorade, GPS, MP3 player and a white Patagonia cap with a huge visor and a curtain behind it covering my neck. I though I looked like Badwater runner until someone told me I looked like a Badwater finisher. What? That bad already? We have just started the run! And it also looked like I had more water on me than the rest of our group all together :)

The first part of the run from the parking lot to the actual trail head was on a paved road that had three wide and at least one foot deep stream crossings. I felt a bit lost especially when we ran up to the first stream but Steph quickly found a bridge just 50 yards up the stream. Two other stream crossings were easier - the bridges were a way closer to the road.

When we hit the Los Pinos trail we saw a dozen of various signs with religious content and a big cross right at the trailhead. I had a feeling all those signs were telling us: “Guys, are you sure you know what you are doing? Think one last time before it is too late!”
The trailhead started with a pretty steep incline – so steep that at times it needed stairs. In almost no time we had to climb from 900ft level of the trailhead to about 2000ft which seemed even a way higher than that when we were looking at the Lazy W Ranch white roofs at the bottom of the canyon.

We did not see much of Steph after that. She took off and quickly disappeared in the trails ahead and above us. I could still see her as a small black dot quickly ascending another mountain from time to time but there was no way we could possibly catch her. I even worked out an official excuse based primarily on my potential tendon issues and a need to run conservatively to be able to continue ascent after everyone else turns back around mile 6.5. The excuse was lame but helped me, as well as the visor of my cap that completely hid the steep ascending trail ahead and the front runners.
Talking about front runners, we – guys – have to admit a complete defeat today. We were left behind. Pretty soon Gabby and Linda lost us as well. I saw them again only at the turn-around point at mile 6.5. If they did not stop there I doubt I would be able to catch up. So I was always wondering why Male and Female results are treated separately at the races, while there are a lot of extremely fast female runners like Nikki Kimball or Michelle Barton that tend to leave a lot of men behind if not all of them. I guess the men do not want to be intimidated like that and want to make sure they always get all the first places if not overall than at least in Male category :)
In a word, Steph, Gabby and Linda kicked our butt big time today. Gabby told me this was the second trail run for her – the first one was a 9-miler not that long ago. And before that she was mainly running marathons. I hope Los Pinos did not spoil the trail running impression for Gabby. If I were a road runner who went to try what trail running is at Los Pinos, it would become the last trail run in my life. I would never leave roads and track after that. But Gabby seemed to do great and looked strong at the turn around point.

One of the most memorable moments: around mile 3 we turned back and saw how clouds rise up from the canyon right in front of us, and how the wind tears them apart and throws pieces right at us. I wish I had at least some of a talent needed to describe it! Suffice to say it was so freaking awesome and surreal I was standing there nailed unable to take my eyes off it for quite a while.
The trail is extremely brutal. It is all covered with rolling loose rocks and running downhill is not much easier that going uphill. The incline is pretty steep and unless you are a complete animal – I know personally some folks that actually are, in a good way – there is no way you can run it. Crawling is a better word for it. My average pace today was about 17 min/mile, which is an absolute PR as my slowest 17 miler ever. Sometimes I could see that my pace was falling to something as low as 37 min/mile on certain uphill sections – a number I never saw on my Garmin before! Another PR: the slowest pace ever!
Add to all of that a hurricane wind on the ridge. We were having face wind or side wind all the way up. Had it been just a notch more furious I would be blown away from the trail down the slope into the canyon.
The cool thing about the trail was that I expected an overgrown singletrack – and it was overgrown indeed but not like the one we ran through with OCTR gang at San Mateo in December – this trail was not one of those that peels the skin from your legs as you run through it.

The elevation at where we parked is 800ft. The elevation at the highest point my GPS detected was at 4,550ft. So the net elevation gain was 3,750ft. I bet considering all the ups and downs, the overall elevation gain for the out and back should have been about 5,000ft, which is pretty close to Mt. Disappointment 50K :)
The ugliest part of the course was all of those last 5 miles (or 1 hour and 20 min) after mile 12.5, when I realized that I completely ran out of water and Gatorade. It was getting hot – now I would not mind some of our morning wind but it got pretty calm. I got to my car pretty dehydrated and had the most refreshing Gatorade bottle of my life. In a single very long sip.

Distance: 17.4 miles
Time: 4:55:05
Average pace: 16:58 min/mile
Overall elevation gain: something like 5,000ft

I ran all the way from Lazy W Ranch to Main Divide and back. And next to the Main Divide trailhead I did find those pines the trail was named after.

Tim's recap:
Los Pinos is BRUTAL that is the hardest trail run I have ever done....and it didn't help on the way back running what I thought was the wrong way...then doubling back and running/crawling back up that section of the trail only to determine I went the right way the first time. On the way up the wind gusts of 300 MPH and the cloud formations were supernatural.....it was strange seeing the clouds come UP the mountain at us. We turned back about a mile from Los Pinos...I drank 40 oz's and ran out about 4 miles from the car...I think I'm a better person from having run/walked this....that's why if you come by my house early Thursday morning you can get a free pair of trail shoes before the trash truck picks them up! :o)

Steph's recap:
I must say I think the only reason I was ahead is that I didn't really stop to look around, I was just trying to get to the top. The one thing I will say about that run is I always enjoy the downhill it's my reward for all the climbing but that trail was no reward It was almost as hard going back down.Oh and that wind was crazy it seriously blew me into the bushes a few times but that made me laugh. So needless to say that when I got home I took a nap, but I loved that trail it was amazing.

More photos from our today's run:

Los Pinos Trail: March 2, 2008

Los Pinos: voices of OCTR

2008-02-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

We plan to run Los Pinos trail this Sunday.
Los Pinos is the only trail marked as strenuous on the map of that area: even infamous Holy Jim is called "moderate to strenuous".

Distance: 8.2 miles (one way or 16.4 miles overall)
Difficulty: Strenuous
Net elevation gain: 3,300 feet
Access: The upper trailhead is on North Main Divide road 5.8 miles from Ortega Highway (Hwy 74). The lower trailhead is in Hot Springs Canyon, 1.5 miles beyond the San Juan Fire Station off the Ortega Highway on the Lazy W Ranch.
Map of the area: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/cleveland/recreation/trails/non-wild-trails.pdf

As I had some questions about directions to the trailhead, I asked OCTR about it. I guess even if I announced I wanted to do Badwater without any support and right after that run back to the start line where I planed to park my car, it would cause less response than my question about our little Los Pinos run this Sunday.

In a word, I never remember being so nervous before a training run. I guess I was less agitated even before my first marathon or my first ultra. As I am trying to pull myself together, I decided to publish most interesting answers in my blog for the next rookie that might dare to challenge Los Pinos after me (and in case I do not manage to come back from there):

Greg Hardesty

Go straight to Hell, take a quick left at Hades, then a right at Eternal Misery, and finally you will arrive at the cul-de-sac locals refer to as Complete Agony. Have fun.

It's up and down, up and down, on pretty technical, overgrown singletrack. Bring lots of fluids and food. It seemingly never ends. Don't do it alone. It's in one of the most remote areas of the Santa Ana Mountains. Awesome views, if you can see through your tears. If I had to pick a worse fate, it would be being forced to watch a season-long DVD of "Grey's Anatomy" or "Scrubs." Los Pinos is the kinder of the options.

The Los Pinos trail snakes up and down (and I mean up and down) on the spine of a ridge, starting at about the 4,200 level and eventually ending somewhere in the high 100s. There are steep ascents and descents too numerous to count. Most of the trail is on loose dirt and rock, and portions are seriously overgrown, making it a very technical challenge (or nightmare -- again, depending on your mood).

Here is the full recap of Greg’s first acquaintance with Los Pinos trail:
http://achtungrunner.blogspot.com/2007/10/rite-of-passage.html

Keira Henninger

Robo and I did Option #2 and added 20 miles on the San Juan Loop trail for one hell of a run the other weekend, and it was awesome! It took Rob and I two and a half hours to climb it (8 miles), and we were freaking pushing it and ran the whole thing (no I am not kidding).

Sunday is gonna be warm and I swear this trail is gnarly! Bring lots of water (camelbacks are a must). It is exposed, very steep and just down right rocky and tough, but by far my favorite trail anywhere! You can also hit it off the bell ridge trail, or from Blue Jay take Main Divide. I have done a few different loops using Los Pinos, and never once has it been anything but a bear!

Kirk Fortini

Dmitri, I'm only echoing what's already been said, but this trail's the real deal. If you find yourself looking up, and you see another trail segment that you sincerely hope you don't have to climb, chances are that's where you're headed. There's more up and down than I can find a comparison to (at least not one that's not ribald).

I guess that in its own way, Pinos is just one of those trails that exposes your weaknesses in a manner that sort of sneaks up on you as the miles progress. Everyone that traverses it has their own impression of the thing.

It, as with any particularly difficult trail, demands of you a high level of humility. When at last you finish, if you think that you've conquered Los Pinos, take a look back over your shoulder. It will still be there, very much unconquered, waiting for the next runner. The only thing that will be conquered would be your own body, tired from your efforts. So, approach your run with the idea that, though challenging, the strenuous nature of the trail will be your silent companion on a path of personal strengthening. Win, lose, or draw, you will discover that you are only human after all.

Nietzsche: "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger."

Charlie Nickell

Be very conservative for this run. If it's really hot, I would bag it. We kid around but if something happens to you halfway up Los Pinos, you're in serious trouble; there’s no relief and no easy way out. BE CAREFUL and SMART. I've seen seasoned runners get absolutely crushed by this trail so hit it first. Eight miles of hell. Make sure you’re will is in order.

Chris Diaz

How to get to Los Pinos Trail? - Train, Train, Train!

The only time I did this trail, I found myself questioning the meaning of life.
Just Run It. What could happen? Bring lots of water and fuel.

Run.com: urban running routes

2008-02-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

You have no excuse for not keeping your New Year's resolution now that you can take that jog almost everywhere you go. Run.com, a user-generated database of running routes all over the world, uses Google Maps mashups, allowing runners to look up routes in their area and choose them by length, difficulty, scenery and other user-rated criteria.

Business travelers who want to keep in shape on the road will be glad to find routes in all 50 states, as well as in dozens of foreign countries. The site is still in beta, so look for more routes to come.

Better than: Getting purposely lost just to mix up your running routine. (Fast Company)

I just tried it to see whether there is anything useful in there:
Vienna: http://www.run.com/showroute.asp?map=218045
Irvine: http://www.run.com/showroute.asp?map=206745

It is similar to gmap-pedometer.com but with a way better interface and a database of running routes.

The site is great for business travelers and city routes, but does not work for trails as all the routes are built out of 100 points max. I tried to map our Black Star Canyon run on this site and due to very curvy trail managed to get only to mile 2 as I ran out of points.

If they do some improvements to the interface this site might become one of the best tools ever!

Black Star Canyon: Ghosts in the Rain

2008-02-24T11:14:00.000-08:00

Out of all the days this week, Sunday was the least suitable for a long trail run. But we got out there bright and early anyways. Initially we planned on running in Crystal Cove but figured if rangers evicted us when we came down to PCH, it could be pretty tricky to get back to the Ridge Park. So we picked a different location – Black Star Canyon that never gets closed rain or shine. Although there was a bunch of runners ready to run El Moro despite rain and rangers, Jeff was the only one who showed up Black Star Canyon. Jeff mentioned that Black Star has a bad reputation because of the local ghosts, dark cults and squatters (more about it below).

When we started at 6am today it was still dark and drizzling a little bit with the temperatures in mid forties. Still it was as muddy and slippery as the previous time when we ran there.

At some point we found a rusty piece of ancient machinery where I left one of my four clothing layers.

The 8-mile ascent proved I have not fully recovered from Orange Curtain yet: I did run all the way up, but it was more difficult than the last time. After our previous run in the Black Star, several people mentioned that we should have made a stop in the hut on the top to warm up before the decent. I guess we found the hut this time: not exactly my definition of hospitality.

Around mile 6 we ran into a cloud and drizzling turned into some more serious rain with heavy wind. So we would not mind a hut with a roof up there :)

We ended up running 16.1 miles today, which took us 2h 55min. Despite my 2 upper supposed-to-be weatherproof layers I ended up soaked to the bones just like the previous time.

I just did a quick research about Black Star Canyon and ghosts in it. Yup, there is no way something having "black" in the title could have gone unnoticed by all of those hunted websites.

Black Star Canyon - The site of multiple Indian massacres dating back to the time of Spanish occupation, Blackstar Canyon is home to many strange phenomena. Indians said to have been spotted both roaming the ridges on horseback and walking the creek for a few steps before disappearing completely. Many night hikers report the feeling of being watched, and the sounds of an invisible presence pacing them shortly off the trail. Screams and howls haunt the night along with the faint chants of an age and people long past. Note: If you are planning an expedition to Blackstar Canyon, travel in groups as it is a very dangerous place, and pay no mind to the homemade "Private Property" signs. The Orange County Sheriffs Office has confirmed that all of the trail is in fact open to the public, and those signs were hung some time ago by squatters attempting to keep people off the land.
http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm395362.html

Enter “Black Star Canyon” into Google, and the first hit that comes up is a site called ghosts.org, which tells a first-person story of rabbits that won’t die—even when shot at close range—and shadowy figures who may be the specters of Spanish conquistadors believed to have slaughtered the indigenous inhabitants back in 1832 (it used to be called Cañada de los Indios). Others tell tales of seeing UFOs and KKK meetings; the canyon is listed on the Shadowlands national index of haunted places
But the dangers aren’t merely supernatural: Some less-than-benevolent local residents often aggressively dispute the idea that the canyon road is public property. It is, and you’re entitled to go through, should you so desire; explain this calmly if confronted.
http://www.ocweekly.com/features/best-of-oc/on-the-range/27769/?page=5

Black Star Canyon - It's located behind Irvine park and the signs that say "no authorities will help you beyond this point" is a main reason why people don't go in. It's supposed to be home of the "KKK" and strange sightings and noises are heard such as running and screaming. Also lion type figures are said to be walking on the mountain tops. "Warning" If you do plan to go take flashlights because it's is freakishly dark (a sort of weapon would also be a good idea)
http://ghost2ghost.org/calist/calist.htm

I am not sure about the ghosts. The whole subject is questionable but I somehow do not believe in them. Nevertheless there is some truth in all those hunted stories.

When they say that "strange sightings and noises are heard such as running and screaming" they did not lie. After running through the mud and puddles both Jeff and I looked pretty strange – you should have seen those foamy bubbles on Jeff’s knees as if he does not looks strange enough without them. As for running and screaming, it is totally us two running downhill trying not to fall down into one of those puddles on the slippery trail.

Still I am not arguing Black Star Canyon can be very scary. Here is a Blair-Witch-project-style home movie made there. I guess it is all a function of alcohol and hash consumption after all.

RECOVER-ease: quick review

2008-02-21T21:14:00.000-08:00

I have been using RECOVER-ease for three weeks already and can see the difference. It took my legs only two days to recover (even if not completely - to the level when running becomes comfortable again) after the Orange Curtain 100k last weekend. And the recovery itself was a way less painful than 10-days-long recovery after my first half marathon in 2006 :)

I usually take 8 pills after a race or a hard training runs (and 2 additional pills if the course was planned by Lambert), 4 pills after more relaxed long runs, and just 2 pills after weekday 3-5-mile quickies.

See the Wicked Fast website for more information of RECOVER-ease:
http://www.recover-ease.com/

When I was contemplating about whether to join the herd of RECOVER-ease drug addicts, I did a quick study of 8 ingredients of RECOVER-ease to make sure there are no side effects or anything like that: the whole thing sounds to good to be true - take a blue pill and you will outrun iMichelle and Keira in no time :)

Besides the fact there are no known negative side-effects from any of those 8 ingredients, one of them - "citrus bioflavonoids" - is instrumental in the prevention of cancers and cardiovascular disease. Just one more side effect (or better to say side benefit) of the RECOVER-ease...

P.S. Here is a review of RECOVER-ease from an independent dietary supplements reviewer: http://www.supplementwatch.com/reviews/doc.asp?docId=2384

Orange Curtain 100K (the mind misery)

2008-02-19T23:36:00.000-08:00

February 16, 2008: www.oc100k.com
Bib: # 6
Place: 7 (out of 32) - Overall results
Distance: 62.1miles / 100km

Elapsed Time: 11:34:49
Average Pace: 11:11 min/mile

Elapsed Time (first 50K): around 5h 7min
Average Pace (first 50K): 9:54 minutes/mile

Blisters: almost 0
Black toenails: 0 new
Sunburns: 1 (I did not use sun any block – is not it still winter after all? – and my face is bright red now except for a white headband mark on my forehead)
Running Shoes: Asics Trail-Attack II (that have 650+ miles on them)

Race Summary

All in all it was a great race. The repetitiveness of the course got on my nerves, or - I guess - on everybody’s nerves. Pounding asphalt for 11+ hours is not exactly my definition of fun either. But the overall experience with the race is positive and the chances are that I might be back next year to beat my time. I know I could do better than this!

The course is not too boring as you always have river on one side – and looking at water all the time has some nerve soothing effect. On the other side of the course you see either green loans of Liberty park of Cerritos, or stables with horses, ponies and goats (sticky but cute), or another park in Long Beach.

The course is as flat as it gets. There are just 3 bridge underpasses. If each of them has a 10ft of elevation loss and gain, than the whole course has probably about 600ft of overall elevation gain. Pretty unique for an ultramarathon, is not it? But it has some disadvantages too: you never have a valid excuse to walk for a change, and when you are running up and down, you use slightly different muscle groups. This gives your legs a chance to have some rest – except for the cases when the hills are too steep and wear you out.

I ran the last 10K from bridge to bridge trying not to think how much more of the course is still in front of me. Once I was going through an underpass, I was focusing on the next bridge and so on. After the very last underpass I got really excited from the bare notion that this darn race is about to end for me very soon. It was dark and I could not see people at the finish but I still accelerated at first from 11:30 min/mile to about 9 min/mile, and then to 7 min/mile pace. If I ever had a strong finish that was it – I squeezed out of myself all the remaining juices, at least all I was capable to dig out. I even passed another runner just 400 yards from the finish line.

Familiar Faces

The first runner I saw when I got to the start line at 6:15 in the morning was Catra Corbett. Well there was a little crowd there, but if there is Catra in it, you can barely notice anyone else, at least for the first 5 minutes. She looks exactly like her photos in her blog :)

After I finished I also met Jorge Pacheco whom I met for the first time at Mt. Disappointment too. He was also there to cheer us up.

After 8th loop (or was it after my 9th?) I spotted Eric Kosters at the North aid station. Being our North OC VP he simply had to show up and remind Kirk and me that our performance is not up the OCTR expectations and we should go faster! It helped: I drastically reduced the time of my usual watermelon pit-stops.

Lorraine Gersitz

It was very difficult not to notice Lorraine in the race. First of all, she was the only runner (on the whole planet?) running the race in her rubber Crocs Clog shoes.

Second of all she was wearing a pretty unique shirt with the RunDown logo on it, and I was the second person in a shirt like that :)

Lorraine is actually the 50K female winner who finished the race in just 4:45:44.

Eric Clifton

I saw Eric Clifton in Cerritos as well. He was running a way too fast for me to catch him up and ask why he was wearing a skirt instead of pants. The first guess that it has something to do with ancient Scottish mountain running traditions falls apart immediately as Eric’s skirt has little to do with Scottish kilts. Anyways it worked out just fine for him – he finished 50K the third in just 4:10:59.

Gregory Moore

I ran with Greg for a couple of miles and learned more about sheriffs, police, and highway patrol than I ever knew in my life. Greg is a deputy sheriff in Lakewood. As far as I got it right now he is one of those guys who patrol the area in helicopters. Greg also mentioned that there is an annual run of all police and sheriffs departments in LA and OC counties when they run all the way from one department to another to commemorate all of their colleagues that got killed in the field.

Vinnie Torres from Pasadena

I met Vinnie whom I was running with most of the way from Red Box II to West Fork aid station at Mt. Disappointment last August. Vinnie helped me a lot back then to keep running. It was cool to see another familiar face again especially as he is also running Leona Divide 50-miler in April.

Natalia Norman

I was looking for Nattie at the start but she did not show up for the race. I guess I will still have a chance to meet her in person at the next race. Nattie wrote a brilliant recap about her experience with Orange Curtain 100K in 2007: “Brain decay at the orange curtain 100k”. Luckily I read it only after the race. It resonates with me a lot – I have been through the same thing too!

http://ultrachick.blogspot.com/2007/02/brain-decay-at-orange-curtain-100k.html

Kirk Fortini

Kirk started the race with some serious stomach issues, which slowed him down a lot. Nevertheless he managed to get through the race and finish 100K under cut-off’s. Kirk did not finish as fast as he would otherwise but his result is still more than remarkable – I would not have guts to last as long as he did, and despite all the obstacles still finish the race! He basically survived a race most of us would DNF from!

We were exchanging hi-five’s with Kirk when running into each other on the course, until I realized it’s not really advisable: Kirk’s powerful hi-five’s were switching off my GPS :)))

Gabor Kozinc

Gabor easily finished the 100K. What is a 62-mile race for a Badwater finisher? Gabor was very explicit about this. He ran without a stop watch, and without a water bottle: just a recreational jogger on his morning 100K jog. Last 20 or 30 miles Gabor was running with a 2-feet-long tree branch in hand – to spank rookies that do not run fast enough according to him.

Carmela Layson

I ran with Carmella for a while as well. I never had a chance to meet her in person before but she still recognized me somehow. Carmela kept up a pretty consistent pace and finished 100K in style in 12:47:01.

Gary Hilliard

It was great to see that Gary showed up to run 50K on Saturday. An ultra-marathon just 6 months after that horrible accident! Some of his buddies came over just to walk with him a part of the distance. Jay warned them however that Gary is pretty fast and can kick their butt. I guess this is exactly what happened afterwards. At first Gary was power walking, but after a couple of laps he started to run and finished 50K in 7:30:46. His ultimate recovery goal was to do Badwater again this year as a big flip off both to his accident and reckless deer that caused it and ran away. I will not be too much surprised if Gary manages to do it in 2008 against all odds!

Leigh Corbin & George Velasco

Leigh and George were training for some gruesome waterless ultra-marathon in Africa. That’s why they ran this race with huge backpacks on their backs. George mentioned those backpacks are “not too heavy”: his was about 15lbs, and Leigh’s one was around 12lbs. They looked a way bigger and heavier to me though. In any case even if 15lbs does not sound like something heavy, just imagine how it should be feeling running with this damn thing for over 30 miles!

Barefoot Ted McDonald

I ran into Barefoot Ted for the first time at the Clear Creek aid station of the Mt. Disappointment race last August. When I realized he is running the whole 50K race really bare-feet I was shocked and speechless. This time Ted was about to try his bare feet on asphalt for the entire 100K distance without any sandals or his Five-Finger soles.

Ted ran away in the head of the pack and passed the 50K mark well under 5 hours. To my surprise I caught him up somewhere in the middle of loop 7 (mile 39) and we ran next 2.5 loops (16 miles or almost 3 hours) side by side.

Ted turned out to be the opposite to what I expected to find. Besides the fact, he is a great athlete he turned out to be an extremely intelligent and educated person. I like his “life-flow” philosophy, which resonated with my own views. After we talked about different things for about an hour I could not help suggesting Ted should write a book.

Three hours of running on a pretty non-entertaining course you just ran through for 15 times in a row is a lot of time. We have discussed a lot of stuff from his strange bare-foot running thing, to life philosophy in general, to the information technology advances, to renewable energy sources and energy crisis, to thermonuclear fusion… We covered both hot fusion reactors with magnetic confinement, Tokamak-type, and cold laser-driven fusion. The funny thing is that I am not kidding about it :)

The standard dialog:
- Hey, Ted, where a heck did you loose your shoes?
- Hey, I use super-advanced nano-technology stuff, while you wear a product of mass-marketing brain-washing that was produced in China and tested for only 15-20 years overall.

Ted finds bare-feet running more natural, but still admits he would be able to run a way faster if he wore regular running shoes on top of his natural nano-technology-based ones. Still Ted does not seem to care too much about outrunning everyone else in the field.

Music

Miles 0-21: I started with pretty conservative slow music to make sure I do not take off too fast: Stan Rogers and some Bluegrass staff.

Miles 21-36: I got eventually tired of Stan’s fishermen songs and switched to my Rock ’n’ Roll collection. This was quite a kick! It slowed down my mental decay. I recall I was running and dancing at the same time. Caught some weird looks at the aid station while eating my watermelon and dancing there – I guess they were wondering whether it is time to call for paramedics and if I might be of any danger for people around me.

Miles 36-40: For the first half of the race I decided not to use my secret weapon (using iMichelle’s terminology) – Iron Horse / Apocalyptica / Metallica / Anthrax. A lot of those songs can accelerate and pace me, but the problem is I would not be able to last for very long at that pace. So I wanted to leave it all to the end. I started with Iron Horse, which is softer and less brutal...

Miles 40-56: … and never actually got to the heavy artillery. Around mile 39 I caught up Barefoot Ted, and we ran for the next 16 miles together chatting.

Miles 56-62: I was tired and although I ran the whole last loop by myself, I decided to leave my MP3 player in my bag at the aid station and listen to the music of the sunset for a while…

Nutrition

I had 7 pills before the run (daily Centrum, Vitamin C 1000mg x2, daytime Cold Relief x2, and Imodium x2, my secret weapon against my stomach that does not always agree with energy gels and other crap we consume to stay afloat during those long races) and 8 pills after it (RECOVER-ease). 15 pills…

Billy Mack: Here's a message from your Uncle Billy kids. Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star and they give them to you for free! (Love Actually)

During the race I was mainly eating PowerBar Double Latte GEL with 2x caffeine – a packet after each 10K. This stuff really kicks even a notch more than Red Bull. First couple of times the kicks from it were so powerful – I found myself running at 7 min/mile pace – that I am wondering if this stuff is legal at all.

The race was sponsored by Accelerade, but considering the distance I preferred not to experiment with it and drank only Gatorade.

Eating Disorder

Did I mention the watermelon? I bet I ate half of their overall watermelon supply. After it got hot after mile 24 I started to waste too much time at the Northern aid station devouring the watermelon piece after piece. It was virtually impossible for me to stop. I could have gotten same amount of liquids from 1-2 Gatorade glasses but the watermelon was so irresistible. I spent over 27 minutes at the aid stations during the whole race. And at least 15 minutes of it all I was just standing at the North aid station eating the darn watermelon. I am lucky they did not have any of it at the South aid station, or otherwise I would come to the finish line another 20 minutes later. Lesson learned: I am not eating any watermelon at the races anymore!

New PR’s

Distance PR: I never ran distances beyond 40 miles prior to this race.

50K time PR: I finished 50K in 5h and 7min or so and could definitely finish it a way under 5 hours did not I have to run another 50K right after that.

Lowest bib number PR: I had a bib #6 – something that will be difficult for me to beat :)

More Photos

More photos from the race:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayspenceranderson/OrangeCurtain100k50k2008

OC100K quick update

2008-02-17T01:48:00.000-08:00

I will do a formal race report later on when I have a chance. This is just a quick update.

I got to the finish as one piece in 11h 35min or something like that. I did better the first 50K in about 5h 7min, but had to pay for my enthusiasm later :)

I avoided injuries and any major blisters, but my legs ache a lot right now, and the cold I caught earlier this week kinda got worse after the race.

I met a lot of great people there. As we were running the same course back and forth the human component of the race was a completely unique experience for me. This is why this race deserves a better recap than that. I will post it within the next couple of days.

Cross-training techniques

2008-02-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

Interview with Karl Meltzer

2008-02-12T23:51:00.000-08:00

A pretty interesting an informative interview with Karl Meltzer: there is a lot about Karl’s ultras, goals and training, but still most of it is about nutrition.

Part 2 of the same interview:

Karl is promoting OPTYGEN formula by First Endurance. OPTYGEN is designed to increase VO2Max, increase the body's ability to acclimatize to high levels of physical stress and increase anaerobic threshold and reduce lactic acid.
Sounds like a new legal steroids-free doping :)

Sleepless in El Moro

2008-02-10T21:54:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at El Moro today.
Pete scheduled a pretty cool training run there consisting of 3 loops:

Loop 1 - 10 miles - Start 5:00am - Finish Time 7:05ish
Loop 2 - 7 miles - Start 7:10am - Finish Time 8:40ish
Loop 3 - 10 miles - Start 8:45am - Finish Time 10:44am

I did only the first two loops: 17.5 miles with about 2:55 overall time. And I would go for the third one, except that something told me that running 27+ miles would not go along with my tapering before the Orange Curtain next weekend.

For the very first time at El Moro I ran through all the up-hills on both loops. Keira had some hard time with me last time kicking my butt and dragging me up the BFI. I guess the spirit of Keira kept staying with me (or better to say kept kicking me :) Go figure!

But my adventure actually started a bit earlier today - at 4:30am. Once I crossed the bridge on Crown Valley Pkwy I found out that Crown Valley is completely shut down in west direction: the was a blinking police car standing right in my way. I have no idea what happened… I had to U-turn, get back to Antonio, turn on Oso, then take I-5 South to get back to Crown Valley on the other side of the police cordon. To my surprise I nevertheless managed to get to our Ridge Park meeting point on time and did not miss the run.

So today I met in person a lot of OCTR folks I never had a chance to run wit hbefore – like the authentic Pete Vara (the one that never broke his ankle), Marisa, Lori, Beiyi, Sid, Cyrus, and …
OK, I have to openly admit it now – once again – I am awful about remembering names (I remember faces a lot better) and I met a lot of new people today – as embarrassed as I am, someone please help me out to fill in the blanks in the blog…

There were a few familiar friendly faces too: Jeff, Shelli and Ryan.

The highlight of the race: when we hit Laguna Canyon, we ran through a big field of a very high green grass – the upside of the recent showers. The greenness of the field looked strange for Southern California where we are more accustomed to a much more yellowish palette. The grass was covered with dew drops that were sparkling in morning sun like diamonds. I tried to take a picture but failed to capture the beauty of it.

Another highlight (same Laguna Canyon, second loop): it was pretty difficult to keep restless Marisa on the trail all the time. She was making circles around us checking out surrounding rocks and caves, and getting additional mileage as well. When Marisa climbed one of those rocks to a cave, and I took a picture of her in it, she suggested I should try it as well. Had not I listened to the internal voice (saying that I was gonna look like a chicken if I do not follow Marisa there), I would not have slept on that rock and would not have found myself embracing a cactus underneath it. My right arm was looking like a hedgehog after that with a bunch of cactus’ thorns sticking out of it :)

I recall Jeff saying that on the bright side I would have something to blog about. And this is exactly what I ended up doing tonight :)

More photos from our today's run:

Sleepless in El Moro

PUMA: Why do you run?

2008-02-06T00:19:00.000-08:00

Another pretty good commercial I can relate to. These guys really caught the spirit of it.

Q:
Why do you run?

There are no crowds here… No fans to cheer you on…
No competition… No finish lines…
So why do I run?

A:
For the love of it.

Under Armour: THE FUTURE IS OURS!!!

2008-02-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

The new Under Armour commercial is one of the most genius sports commercials I ever saw.

It is us or them!
The game has changed!
You are the new prototypes!
We are Under Amour!
THE FUTURE IS OURS!!!

Excellent idea, great timing, seemingly flawless execution!

1) Under Armour built a great premium brand, built up a very strong retail position, and it was totally the right step for them to diversify their brand expanding it into footwear

2) They chose a big bang strategy to make sure everyone gets the message: it is not a brand evolution, but a revolution

3) And what is a better moment to come up with this message and get *really* noticed than the Super Bowl?

4) Look at the positioning: "It is us or them!" This slogan portrays zero tolerance to any competition! We are the Clan! The future is ours! If you are caught wearing Nike or Adidas - even when cleaning your garage - you are not one of us any more!

5) The passion and drive of the commercial are extremely contagious! The references to Matrix are cool too! Few commercials resonated with me more than this one.

6) Finally the Under Armour's commercial is pretty unique!

Just have a look at this Asics commercial: Sound Mind Sound Body

And compare it with this Nike's Just-do-it! thing:

Nike's and Asics commercials are so similar that it is difficult to tell one from the other. They are both high-quality and fun to watch. But they are far from being any unique and do not stick as much as Under Armour does.

Anyways, I just wanted to say there should be some kind of Academy Award for marketing people too, and one of those should definitely go to Under Armour.

Our Mud Run in Black Star Canyon

2008-02-03T23:40:00.000-08:00

“One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We've been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stinging rain and big old fat rain, rain that flew in sideways, and sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.”(Forest Gump)

We ran 16 miles in the Black Star Canyon today. It was muddy, it was slippery, it was freaking cold – especially after we went above 2500ft elevation mark. Did I mention that it was also raining like hell? When we got wet last Monday I thought it was it. I realized today that it was not. We were running for 3 hours through the rain that never stopped. I got wet through my supposed-to-be weather-proof running jacket and 2 long-sleeve shirts. My shorts, socks and shoes were completely soaked. I ended up running through puddles not worrying about getting wet anymore – I just was not physically capable to get any wetter than I got there.

We started up our run from the Black Star Canyon gate at around 6:45 with Jeff, Linda, Oline, and one other Linda's friend (I am horrible about the names – never remember them). Around mile 5 into the run (mile 5.28, 5.29, 5.30, 5.31 to be exact – Linda knows what I am talking about) we parted. Jeff and I continued our up-hill battle against mud and rain, while the rest of the group turned around and went back.

At the end of mile 8 we stopped and looked around. We did not really reach the top of the mountain – we probably missed a turn or something. We stopped there for a quick snack and immediately froze to our very bones under the wind and rain. All I could think about was an aid station where I could DNF from this “race” and get a lift to my car.

By the way, I noticed my hill repeats are yielding some positive results – running uphill is less of a torture for me now. We ran all of these 8 miles uphill and never switched to walk.

On our way back Jeff gave me a 40-minute lecture about different types of sweat, sweat cells, sweat ingredients and the reasons why sweat turns into a soapy foam under the rain :) You can see that foam on Jeff’s knees in the pictures below. And my knees did not look any better. I know it is kinda gross to go into details about this stuff, but I have never seen this “foam” before as I never ran this far in the rain.

By the end of our run we both felt pretty strong and picked up the pace. We ran the last mile at around 8 minutes/mile pace, and even sprinted last hundred yards or so when we finally saw the gate :)

This is not a moon, but a rain drop in the light of my camera flash:

Our pit stop at mile 8:

A picture of Jeff's foamy knees at mile 10:

Mile 16.3 - wet but extremely happy we finally got back to the parking lot:

This is how dirty we were:

Keira, Lambert, we are so sorry you could not join us today. Yup, it was wet and muddy but a lot of fun at the same time… And you missed all Jeff’s foam too :)

Montana de los Muertos: coming 2008

2008-02-01T23:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.dead100.com/

They have the skull there for a reason: this race is gonna have over 50,000ft of overall elavation gain.

So it looks like Barkley Marathon is gonna have a decent competition soon.

Barkley so far seemed to be the most gruesome of all those races. Not as well known as Badwater microwave race, but nevertheless Badwater sounds more like a cool vacation on an island compared to it.
http://www.mattmahoney.net/barkley/

Since the race began in 1986, only 6 runners out of about 600 have finished Barkley within the 60 hour cutoff.
The course record is 56 hours 57 min :)
It has 52,900 feet of elevation gain and a few more cool surprises :)

Talking about these races is like talking about merits of Veyron 16.4 (I bet insurance premium per year for it is more expensive than both of our cars are worth altogether :).
Still having a little meaningless chit-chat about Bartley's and Veyron's of the world is always kinda amusing :-)

Black Star Canyon: Trailhead Maps

2008-01-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

Directions: take Santiago Canyon Road (S18) to Silverado Canyon Road, turn north, and then make a quick left onto Black Star Canyon Road. The trailhead is where this road deadends at a gate, about 1/2 mile down.

Here are the maps of the trailhead:

Riders on the Storm

2008-01-28T23:32:00.001-08:00

It was wet and drizzling a little when we went with Irina for a run at 5:20 this morning. The drizzle turned into a rain, and the rain into a shower. By the end of the first mile it was raining cats and dogs, except that two of us were the only two species that were nuts enough to go out for a run this morning. We were wet to the bones, and people driving to work had a pretty curious and puzzled look on their faces when we were crossing streets in front of them. I do not recall being as wet as I was when we came home. But all in all it was a lot of fun and something we will remember for quite a while :)

20M on Donauinsel

2008-01-25T17:16:00.000-08:00

I am going home tomorrow, and as on the last day our meetings finished earlier, I had some quality time for another run in Vienna. This time I crossed Donaukanal, ran through Leopoldstadt and then half-crossed Donau River to Donauinsel Island. Donauinsel is a very narrow and around 18-mile long island on the north-east of Vienna.

I descended on it from the Angerner-Bundestrasse somewhere in the middle and ran all the way to its south-eastern tip of Donauinsel and back.

My run was about 20.5 miles today, which brought my overall mileage for my week-long business trip in Vienna to 65 miles (or 105km). This is the maximum distance I ever covered within a week. A kind of a PR, so to say. However of OC100K goes fine, this PR will not stay longer than 20 days on my PR list :)

Donauinsel is a paradise for an urban runner. Most of the trails there are paved, but there are a few gravel fire roads too. The view from this island is as spectacular as it gets – Donau is embracing it from both sides and you see the river all the time during your run..

One of the gravel trails of Donauinsel:

Six miles ino the run:

Mile 10.5 where I eventually reached the south-eastern tip of the island:

Sunset above Donau:

You know you are an ultra-runner if... :)

2008-01-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

Just had very funny 20 min going through the list of the symptoms of ultra-running addiction, collected by Kevin Sayers.

I can relate to all of them, even although I have not run any distances beyond 40M yet.

Here are the things that resonated with me the most:
_____________________________________

7. You don't recognize your friends with their clothes on.
31. Your friends recognize your better dressed in shorts than in long pants.

8. You have more buckles than belts.

12. Your feet look better without toenails.
60. Your pedicure kit includes a pair of pliers.
61. Your number of toes to toenails doesn't match.

17. You develop an unnatural fear of mountain lions.

21. Your ideal way to celebrate your birthday is to run at least your age in miles with some fellow crazies.
22. Your ideal way to have fun is to run as far as you can afford to with some fellow crazies.

24. You run marathons for speed work.

28. People at work think you're in a whole lot better shape than you think you are.
29. You actually are in a whole lot better shape than you think you are.

30. Your weekend runs are limited by how much time you have, not by how far you can run.

34. You think of pavement as a necessary evil that connects trails.

56. As an infant you were dropped on your head.

61. When the races you enter end in a different area code. -and pass through several different Zip codes enroute.

83. Somebody asks about the distance of an upcoming race and you, without thinking, say, "Oh, it's just a 50K."
91. You are embarrassed that you've only done 50K's...
_____________________________________

Gratefully and shamelessly copied from Kevin Sayers' UltRunR website:
http://www.ultrunr.com/youknow.html

Voting for the 2008 Speed Goat of the year is open!

2008-01-23T05:58:00.000-08:00

Originally posted at:
http://www.wasatchspeedgoat.com/2008/01/22/379/

Running in Vienna (part II)

2008-01-21T14:21:00.000-08:00

So I had another wonderful 15-mile run in Vienna today. As I started it a bit later than yesterday – around 4:30pm – I had my headlight and tail blinking light on me. In the evening dusk – especially after 5:30pm – Donaukanal riverside looks like a small out-and-back half-marathon race with a lot of runners going in both directions along both sides of the river.

I noticed that Viennese runners despise headlights for some reason. Even when you are in the city there are a lot of bikers on the same trail that would make me uncomfortable, running with no lights at all. And there are a few poorly-lighted sections too. But when I left the city and was running on its outskirts without any street lights at all, I also met a few people that we running in complete darkness. Either local folks see better in the dark than I do, or they are just enjoying additional adrenaline rush at the sound of each car or bike approaching from behind.

Anyways, my excessive trail lighting made a lot of heads turn, as I was passing by. I guess people were trying to figure whether it was a slow bike or a fast Christmas tree :)

I was not running extremely fast – my average pace today was about 9:10 min/mile. Still I felt good passing by all the other runners all the time. So when another runner passed me by around mile 6 into my run, my inner child took over and – even knowing that I have quite a few miles still ahead of me – I got competitive and sprinted to catch him. In a little while I did catch him and rushed further to make sure he stays behind and I do not see him again. Still I could see his shadow stretching from behind for quite a while. Something did not feel right though - I checked my pace again – it was 6:40. Whom was I kidding? I know I cannot survive at this pace long enough… After a quick but very heated discussion with the inner child, I suggested the inner child would better go to hell this time, slowed down and let that guy go ahead unchallenged.

Still this is exactly the thing that spoiled a lot of my races. I feel good early on into a race and when I see faster runners I cannot help picking up my pace, and have to pay for my “super-performance” later during the second half of the race when I tend to run out of gas.

Here is one of the bridges crossing Donaukanal:
Another bridge with lions on it:
A breathtaking view of Donau lit by the moonlight:
Both of these pictures were taken on the outskirts of Vienna, probably 3 miles from the city:
City lights from the suburb:
Vienna at night:

Running in Vienna

2008-01-20T14:48:00.000-08:00

I ran in Vienna today, which turned to be a lot less freezing than I had anticipated – the temperature went up to around 50F during the day.

I ran through the historical downtown and then on the bike path that goes by the side of the Donau River. I bet it was the same bike path Lambert had told me about: http://www.radtouren.at/en/radwege/genussradtouren/donauradweg.html
I ended up running 13 miles today.

But here is the fun part. I flew in around noon and as I had some time to spare I decided to find some nearby supermarket and get a pack of Gatorade or – if I am unlucky – water. I spent over an hour in the downtown and did not find any supermarkets, even small ones – only restaurants, boutiques and souvenir shops. Either locals do not eat at all, or always eat out. In any case they did all to hide the supermarkets from those annoying tourists constantly hunting for Gatorade.

I returned to my hotel empty-handed and ask concierge for directions. His reaction was: “Are you nuts? It is Sunday for Christ’s sake! Everything is closed!” There were a couple of hidden supermarkets nearby, but the only open one was located on the other side of the city at the Western railway station.

When we lived in Switzerland it was exactly the same – supermarkets were closed on Sundays and all the holidays And on top of it they were also closed after 6:30PM on weekdays. And we were used to it back then. It is just when you live to US you start taking some things for granted – like Ralphs open 24/7 or Albertson open past midnight – and cannot imagine that it can be otherwise :)

Vienna at night:

Vitamin T: definitely a friend :)

2008-01-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

Following Steph's comment on my post about Vitamin I (Ibuprofen), I did a quick research on Tylenol to figure whether it can be used during the races. And the answer is... unless you get addicted and start overdosing, you totally can you use it during the races.

Tylenol does not belong to the family of Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) such as Advil, Motrin, Aleve, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc. Tylenol is an acetaminophen, and it was shown to be safe.

http://www.sfrrc.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=798031&module_id=5042
http://www.tylenol.com/page.jhtml?id=tylenol/muscle/subfmarathon.inc

Alternative Training Techniques

2008-01-17T00:08:00.000-08:00

(by Kevin Sayers and Tom Midlam)

PREPARING FOR A COLD ULTRA
Get a job at the local meat packer. Show up two hours early for your shift in only shorts and singlet. Enter the freezer and run laps among the sides of beef. We tried working at a brewery carrying beer kegs on our backs and running up and down the stairs. Sadly we found ourselves drinking more than running. Since protein is a more important food source in ultras, the meat packing job is better suited to our needs than the brewery.

HOT WEATHER TRAINING
Get a job at the local steel mill. Show up two hours early and fire up the furnace. Run alongside it until your skin becomes red and irritated. Let blisters form and turn to tough scar-tissue for protection against the blazing sun during an ultra. Try to avoid using electrolyte replacement. Replenishment will only help aid in your effort and the purpose of training is to make you hard and tough, not to wimp out with fluid and salt replacement. On the other hand, using an over-abundance of replacements will also train your body to become a chemical synthesizing machine so when you do things differently on race day than you did in training, you can handle it.

BONE AND JOINT STRENGTHENING
After much trial and error, we have found that jumping out of trees really helps to toughen up those weak tendons and ligaments in the ankles and knees that runners so often neglect. To do this correctly, find a sturdy tree, then climb to approximately 20 feet and jump out. Most people will want to stick their landing with both feet. Those that require additional canyon falling training can incorporate a parachute roll upon impact by tucking the arms in and rolling off to one side. Seek out sharp rocks to roll over in order to get used to that. However, sticking the landing with locked knees is best as it also readies the spine for severe jarring encountered on trail ultras. With a little practice, you'll find taller trees and even jump out blindfolded. Now the most technical course will be a piece of cake for you.

MUD AND SLOPPY TRAILS RUNNING
No rain lately? No access to trails? No problem! Filling a bathtub with cooked oatmeal will simulate the sticky and slick characteristics of mud, depending on the how long you leave the oatmeal on the stove. Old fashioned oats have proven to be the most mud-like when mixed with extra water. Instant, flavored oats can be used in a pinch. Fill the tub up all the way, then run in place while singing, ...I gotta be me... Cream of wheat simulates quicksand common to many ultras in the south. Think of the advantage you'll gain over the competition unfamiliar with the extremes of quicksand.

NIGHT TIME RUNNING
Running at night can be monotonous and tricky. A head lamp is mesmerizing if the user is not accustomed to it. By putting your headlamp on, then stepping into a closet and staring at a wall for 4-5 hours, you are simulating the 3 AM death march in most 100 milers. If a hand held flashlight is your light source of choice, then run in place holding the flashlight at waist level focused on the wall and you will quickly see that, basically, you're out there on that trail, or at least your mind will tell you that.

SIMULATING A HURRICANE
Adding to the oatmeal/bathtub idea, a slight variation is to turn on the shower, thus simulating stormy conditions. Also, go to Home Depot and pick up an industrial-strength fan to create a 50 mph wind. Using cold or hot water will help approximate either winter or summer showers (tip to the tuff: do not wear Goretex). We have taken to using cold water and ice cubes, running in shorts without shoes, to make us extra tuff for our Barkley or Hardrock encounters. Boiling water and loin cloth help with Badwater conditions. Sometimes we break coke bottles and stir the shards of glass in with the oatmeal. Your ultra-prepared feet will thank you during the next race. Blisters will be just a happy memory from now on.

NUTRITION
Practice eating small amounts of tree bark to aid digestion. Also, eat poison ivy leaves whenever possible. This will acclimate your entire digestive system to what you will encounter in the woods of many ultras. Don't get hung up on which glucose polymer BCAA carbohydrate protein electrolyte fructose drink gel mix to use. We recommend Car-boom gel, Fig Newton's, and a double-dosage of Ex-lax during your walking breaks. As ultrarunners do best on an empty stomach, the sudden infusion of apple, carbohydrate and laxative will speed the digestive and intestinal process. You will never throw up during an ultra again, and you'll know how to react when hit with gastro- intestinal distress.

WILDLIFE ATTACKS AND SPEED TRAINING
On your next trail run, steal and kill a baby cougar (please no animal rights activist comments - this is ultra training and nothing is as important). Strap the little guy to your back and soon you will experience the exhilarating feeling of being stalked. Luckily, you'll be prepared! This is the point at which either fartleks, pickups or intervals can be used to deter a deadly confrontation. Wearing a mask backwards is also an excellent idea. But don't get a mask that shows an animal that's superior to the cougar; that's not training! Get one with a picture of a timid-looking gazelle or bunny rabbit. Then get ready to bolt. Bonus tip: If you're lucky enough to have a vulture swoop down to grab the kitten off your back, grab the bird and bite its head off. Honing these skills harkens back to the days of the truly tuff distance runners and will help establish your legacy on multi-day runs.

STREAM CROSSINGS
Nothing is more worrisome to an ultra runner than a babbling brook. But take heart, flowing water can be your friend. Before you take to the trails, visit your local scuba shop. Purchase a wet suit, flippers, goggles, and a bathing cap. In your next ultra, think how envious your competitors will be when you whip out your water gear at the appropriate moment. If packed correctly this will all fit in a survival pack.

GETTING READY FOR PAIN AND CATASTROPHE
Toss a few rocks in your running shoes. Run several hours, then place thumb tacks into your shins to experience the soreness of shin splints. If that's too difficult for you, have a buddy or spouse insert them. If you've got a really tuff ultra in the near future, you must plan and train for any contingency. This isn't for everyone, but you can cut off part of any toe (big toe not an option due to balancing requirements). Do not apply any pressure or attempt to stop the bleeding. Relish the experience of low blood volume and know that no other competitor will be as ready as you.

ALTITUDE ACCLIMATION
Unless you actually live at altitude in the Rocky Mountain area, everyone has the potential for having problems at altitude. We tried sealing up our houses and decreasing the oxygen content by pumping out oxygen. This greatly upset our wives after imploding all the windows. As a compromise, we've taken to climbing tall book cabinets and perching there for long periods of time. This has nothing to do with altitude acclimation but it sounds really X-treme.

____________________
These materials were honestly stolen from Kevin's UltRunR website: http://www.ultrunr.com/alttrain.html

Vitamin I: friend or foe?

2008-01-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

I found a couple of good articles about use of Ibuprofen during endurance events. If you know already you'd better refrain from taking it to stay out of trouble, you can skip the rest of this post :)
____________________________

Can I take Ibuprofen while I’m running?

1) If you have pain so significant that you can’t run without pain relievers, then you have a problem that needs to be treated by a physician and 2) talk to your doctor before taking any pain medications.

To answer the question directly, no you should NOT take Ibuprofen or other NSAID pain relievers while running. There are two reasons for this: one has to do with stomach problems and the other has to do with the kidneys.

Stomach issues can be serious, ranging from stomach upset to bleeding. You should always take pain relievers with food. During a long run or a race, the combined lack of food that you’ll likely be eating and the stress on your gastrointenstinal tract will make these problems even more serious.

In terms of kidney problems, NSAID drugs are processed out of the system by your kidneys. Your kidneys are already working overtime during a long run or race and when you are dehydrated they are under even more stress. Adding these drugs to the load on your kidneys can cause kidney damage.

http://coachjoeenglish.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/training-can-i-take-ibuprofen-while-im-running/

Based on what we know from research, the use of Ibuprofen can impair health and performance if taken in larger doses and if in combination with dehydration due to altered renal function. Endurance training and competition is highly dependent on your body’s ability to move fluids through the kidneys. The restriction of this fluid movement can cause numerous adverse effects including dehydration, hyponatremia and kidney failure. All of which do not bode well for a PR. For races and hard training sessions, the risks seem to outweigh the questionable benefits.

Therefore, the use of NSAIDs should be reserved for post-exercise and taken in moderation. A proper warm-up and good fueling practices may do more for you to prevent muscle soreness and inflammation than popping a few Ibuprofen.

http://www.firstendurance.com/newsletter_NSAIDS.html

____________________________

*) "NSAID" stands for "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs"

Orange Curtain dress rehearsal at Aliso Creek

2008-01-13T23:46:00.000-08:00

My long training run this Sunday became my 3rd ultra after Mt-Disappointment and Ridgecrest. It was a self-supported 40-miler at Aliso Creek Bikeway with 7 fully-stocked aid stations :-)

I parked at our “usual” place of El Toro and Marguerite on Aliso Creek Bikeway and was running multiple out-and-back 10K’s – pretty much Orange-Curtain style. The course is pretty flat with a very modest elevation gain/loss. Although there is a dirt trail by the side of the paved road it is too rocky and felt even worse than the paved surface.

Soundtrack:
ERA II – Interview with iMichelle – Interview with Scott Jurek – Interview with iMichelle again :) – Louis Gerstner's elephants – Phantom of the Opera

Distance: 40 miles / 64.4 km
Net time: 6:58:49
Average pace: 10:28 min/mile
Rest time: 24:18 (Gatorade refills, bathroom breaks, etc.)
Overall time: 7:23:11

This is my distance PR so far: my longest races were all 50K, and the longest training run did not exceed 27 miles.

This was a great dress rehearsal before my Orange Curtain 100K in February. It was not an easy run, but it feels like unless something unexpected happens before or during OC100K, I should be able to do it under 13-hour cut-off time.

My aid station:
This is what I looked like after these 40 miles:
My Garmin's readings:

Aliso Creek Bikeway

2008-01-06T23:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Greg, I found today a perfect place to run at when it is wet and raining. Yup, we also have this “problem” sometimes here is Sothern California, where in general it never rains :)

Aliso Creek Bikeway starts at the Cook's Corner and goes all the way to Awma Rd and Also/Wood Canyon in Laguna Niguel.

One of the best places to park is a small parking lot right off El Toro and Marguerite, at the Saddleback Church. I was supposed to meet Greg there this morning but did not find the parking lot at first and missed him. So I ran following his footprints and met him after he turned back.

Greg ended up running all the way from this parking lot to the roundabout at the gate of Aliso/Wood, which is 23 miles out and back. I did not run this far and ended up doing only 18 miles today.

The course is spectacular, as most of it goes along a side of a small river with a lot of trees and vegetation growing around it. In most of the cases you have an option of either running on a paved road (mostly asphalt) or a dirt trail running right by it.

The course is pretty flat with almost no ups and downs, except that when you run from Lake Forest to Laguna Niguel most of it is a slight downhill, which means you are running uphill on your way.

A perfect headband: SWEAT-BLOCK

2008-01-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

I found a perfect headband and dumped all other types of headbands and bandannas I was wearing while running.

At first I bought one by HALO at Long Beach marathon expo in October:
http://store.haloheadband.com/ ($12)

I tried to get some more of those at OC marathon expo yesterday and discovered another company that sells exactly the same product under their own brand name - EVAKI:
http://www.evakiapparel.com/ ($10)

Both brands also sell bandannas and tieback headbands based on the same technology but I prefer pullover headband version of it.

“Our headbands are manufactured with Visa Endurance fabric. Embedded with silver ions, this microfiber polyester helps eliminate bacteria caused by moisture to allow for maximum odor control for the life of the headband. The fabric is lightweight and breathable and keeps sweat away from the body which is exactly how you want it.

Utilizing a patented technology called SWEAT-BLOCK our headbands feature a water-tight seal that forces sweat to the sides of the face and away from the eyes. The non-slip surface keeps the band in place.”

Bottom line:
- Unlike any other headbands and caps, these headbands do actually divert sweat from your face
- They fit more comfortably, can be worn under a helmet when cycling, and will never crawl down onto your eyes
- They do not stink for some reason (even if you wear it during several long runs without washing), and they dry up quickly

My 2008 Calendar

2008-01-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

Finally I rounded up my race schedule for 2008. Thanks to SoCal Ultraseries race menu, the planning process got pretty painless and straightforward :)

Orange Curtain 100k
16-Feb-08
This is going to be my very first 3-digit race – although it is “just” a 100k and not a real 100M. This distance is twice longer than anything I ever did before. On the other hand it is a race on a pretty flat course. Basically it is a 10 times out-and-back along a channel in Cerritos – 10 times 10k race. The cut off time for it is 13h but I hope to do it in 11h – did not I do High Desert 50k in 5:27? – and High Desert did have some moderate elevation gain… Another good thing about Orange Curtain is that there will be several other OCTR runners doing 100k this year – Eric, Kim, Kirk, Natalie – and I expect to have a lot of fun there – not just a bunch of new blisters :)

Leona Divide 50M
19-Apr-08
My first trail 50 miler… I heard it is a pretty mild course with 9000ft of elevation gain spread over multiple ups and downs (as opposed to some blood-sucking 5-mile-long uphills some oter races have) and a runner-friendly terrain.

Saddleback Memorial Half Marathon
26-May-08
Looking at the other races on my list you could ask what this one is doing in here. It is a road race, and just a half marathon, which is a way shorter than many of our training runs. But I have an emotional attachment to this particular event. It became the first running event in my life back in 2006. Plus my daughter Sophia was born in Saddleback hospital in 2005, and our windows were looking at the event’s starting line :)

Holcomb Valley 33M
8-Jun-08
This 50K race takes place at the Big Bear area. Not sure about the elevation profile of the course but you cannot expect to be flat in those mountains. The lowest point of the course is 6750ft at the Big Bear lake; the highest is 8212ft. One thing I can say for sure – the course should be extremely spectacular!

Mt. Disappointment 50M
9-Aug-08
This is going to be a killer race – my most challenging event for the whole 2008. But this time I will come a way more prepared than last year as I know the course now and will be specifically training for this race doing a lot of hill work.

Bulldog 50k Ultra (questionable…)
23-Aug-08
As much as I want to do Bulldog, I am not sure I will be able to do it just two weeks after Mt. Disappointment 50 miler. Although the recovery time is not as long as it used to be for me in the past and I feel less crippled after my races, I still doubt it is any reasonable to do these two races almost back to back.

Noble Canyon 50k
29-Sep-08
Just as Greg asked before he did it in 2007, am I noble enough to do it? And taking into consideration 10,317ft of overall elevation gain, is it going to be a trail race or a trail hike for me?

Twin Peaks 50k (postponed) (questionable…)
?-Nov-Dec-08
The race was initially scheduled for February 2, 2008 and got postponed after half of its trails got burned during Santiago wildfire. Jess is trying to get a new permit for it and at this point it is not clear whether this race can happen in 2008 at all.

High Desert 50k
7-Dec-08
Although it is always freezing in Ridgecrest in December – around 30F at the start line – I could hardly say no to it. The course is spectacular, the race is fun to run, there are too few races in December, and I want to beat my last year 5:27 time there!

-----------
Besides that I hope I will have a chance to pace one of my buddies from our running club at one of the following races:

Angeles Crest 100
13-Sep-08
Angeles Crest is one of those heroic races I always wanted to get a glimpse of. As it is one of the most difficult 100 milers in US it is unlikely I will undertake anything like it before 2010 or 2011.

San Diego 100
20-Oct-08
San Diego might become my first 100 miler in 2009. So it would be cool to get a preview of it.

Year-end mountain trail marathon at San Mateo

2007-12-31T00:55:00.000-08:00

Mileage: 26.4 miles
Running time: 5h 23min
Average pace: 12:14 min/mile
Overall elevation gain: 4800ft

Runners: Charlie, Keira, Greg, Lambert (LT), Robert S, Eric Kosters, Eric Klingsporn (EKP), Kirk, Dmitri

Course: We started from Morgan trailhead on South Main Divide Road. From Morgan trail we turned onto Tenaja Falls trail, then south Tenaja trail to Tenaja trailhead (where we refilled our bottles), and then ran back to Bluewater trail. After that we took a Crazy-Lambert shortcut to the north Tenaja trail and finally reached the Four Corners. After we ran down the Bear Ridge trail we split into slackers that ran down Bear Canyon trail to Charlie’s Jeep (26.4 miles option), and super-nuts that when all the way back to the Morgan trailhead and ran 30+ miles overall. 99% of course was on single-track trails.

Most spectacular part: Tenaja Falls trail. It was pretty flat, running through a dense forest with several streams crossings. The streams where mostly dry, all covered with huge white boulders. The falls are nowhere close to Niagara, but the view from the top was magnificent.

Most memorable part: Crazy-Lambert shortcut to North Tenaja. It is a mountain trail abandoned by deer and mountain lions for its steepness. Why would one want to waste time doing switch-backs if you can just short-cut it running straight to the mountain top? Every time we were reaching something that looked like a summit, we saw yet another portion of the uphill in front of us. Not sure about the elevation in the canyon at the bottom of it (1000ft?), but our elevation at the end of it was over 2900ft. As good as Lambert is about itineraries, someone should do a reality check after him each time.

Most painful part: North Tenaja trail is covered with overgrown dry vegetation and thorny brush. You have to run through it while it peels your skin of your legs. At least it felt that way. We all ended up with a lot of cuts after running through it.

Most enjoyable part: Candy store and a croissant cheese and ham sandwich I bought there after those 26.4 miles. I do not recall being as hungry as I was after this run! Ever! When we were running Bear Canyon trail down to the Candy store I basically saw a bunch of visions of various burgers, double-doubles, hot dogs, and other food :)

Just to give you an idea of how beautiful these trails are:

The OCTR gang led by Keira to Tenaja falls:

Turtle-like boulder above Tenaja falls:

Tenaja Falls trail:

We are at Tenaja Falls trailhead. Keira is milking the pump while Lambert is entertaining the crowd with a little striptease:

Chaz is showing off his knee:

More photos from the run:

San Mateo trails, 29-Dec-07

Here is Greg’s recap from our run: Link.

Happy New Year!

Super-early pre-Christmas run at El Moro

2007-12-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

We have had a wonderful run in El Moro on Sunday. At first I thought no one is going to show up at all. Then Mike K signed up on the condition though that the run should start at 5:30am. After Mike mentioned he would bring his famous cannabis brownies, few more brownies lovers signed up for the run too: Charles and Keira. Also Mike invited over a friend of his – Matt.

At the end of the day this Mike’s brownies thing turned out to be a scam and we did not get any. As Mike explained after the run it was a joke. I totally agree with Chaz on this: “There are a few sacred items you don't screw around with in ultra running: someone's hydration bottles, all Garmin products, trail shoes and fricken brownies.”

The day started with four of us impatiently dancing together in chilly morning dusk waiting for Keira to show up. The temperature at the Ridge Park was about 45F. As Charlie noticed, if it were a guy we had been waiting for, we would have been gone for good long before that. But Keira was worth every second of the wait. I did not have a chance to meet her before but just heard a lot about her from OCTR folks. Keira turned out to be another "Energizer bunny" constantly cheering and energizing everyone around her – very similar to iMichelle image I got after I ran with her in Aliso/Wood. Later on when we hit BFI and El Moro ridge uphill, and I lagged behind everyone and switched to walking, Keira waited for me and kept cheering me until we reached the top of it. Thanks to her I managed to run it up this time!

But when we started the run it was still pretty dark there. Mike and Chaz had headlamps. They turned out to be pretty handy on the Pacific Ridge trail, which had a couple of moderately technical downhill sections that would have been a bit tricky to get through with no lights at all.

After we reached the PCH and made a turn on BFI, I saw Chaz and Keira abruptly stopped staring at something on the trail. That something turned out to be a couple of empty Starbucks cups left by some careless hikers by the trail. I would normally just pass by not even paying attention to some trash in the park. Not these guys though. They picked up the cups and argued for the next 10 minutes who will have an honor to carry them out. Finally after the caps were properly smashed and loaded into Chaz's backpack, we went on.

After we reached the top of El Moro, Keira became restless and kept running back and forth every single little side trail or anything reminding a side trail at all. She recalled some magnificent down-hill switchback she ran down there with Kevin once before. We did not find it but the whole back-and-forth exploration process was quite a fun just by itself.

This is what we looked like when we finally hit the Bommer Ridge:

The first loop around Crystal cove was over 10 miles. After that we returned to our cars to refill our bottles. At that point Keira told us she was tired - something no one probably ever heard from inexhaustible Keira ever before - and opted out from the second loop. She had an excuse through - she had run 30 miles with LT just the day before...

We did our second loop on that spectacular side trail leading from the Bommer Ridge down to Laguna Canyon. I am not sure about the names of trails and canyons though in the north-east part of Crystal Cove. Probably this is the one reffered to by Ryan as Mudslinger Scramble.

Anyways while we were running there Charlie was entertaining us with various stories interrupted from time to time with short commercials about his new grey running bra with cupholders for Starbucks cups:

Our final mileage was: 18.3 miles
Overall time: 3:24:20
Average pace: 11:10 minutes/mile

More photos from our run:

El Moro Run 23-Dec-07

XTERRA Crystal Cove 15K

2007-12-16T23:45:00.000-08:00

XTERRA Crystal Cove 15K, December 16, 2007: Link
Place: 69 (out of 214)
Bib: # 345
Distance: 9.3 miles / 15 km
Net Time: 1:25:33
Average Pace: 9:12 minutes/mile
Elevation Gain: about 1200 feet

Start line

Dmitri, Lambert, Martin

Finish line

Lambert and Martin

Martin and Dmitri

I set a new distance PR today – I ran the shortest race in my life - 15K. My first race ever was Saddleback Half-Marathon in 2006 and I never did anything shorter than that. As I have never been exceptionally fast I did not even plan to do any of those 5K or 10K races.

XTERRA seemed to be cool though but when I heard about it, it was already sold out. And then all of a sudden I saw that Pete Vara’s post at our club’s web site about the unique once-in-a-lifetime XTERRA free entry opportunity.

The only thing is that I had to run there as Pete Vara. As Pete is faster than I we agreed I will disguise myself as “Pete Vara with broken ankle” so that no one would notice a forgery as I cross the finish line an hour after Pete would cross it if he were not out of town this weekend.

I went to pick up my bib on Saturday at Fleet Feet in Laguna Niguel. They did not find Pete on the list for some reason, told me that I do not look like him at all, and that they would need to break my ankle for real if I keep bugging them.

I went home with a relief as I did not feel well and did not run at all since Tuesday. Oh, did I mention I got a terrible cold that got worse after inhumane Ridgecrest weather? Still I sent a quick note to the real Pete after I came back – just in case. To my surprise Pete managed to settle the things up, and I got my bib the following morning.

I met Lambert and Martin at the drop bag area, and then later at the start line another OCTR member Kiko and two mudslingers – Ryan and Diego.

At the start line we were reminded that earbuds are not allowed during this race as they are “anti-social”. Well I already had my iPod on me and headphones with big ear cups. They had absolutely nothing to do with the forbidden earbuds and I put them on – partially in order not to hear Lambert who was desperately trying to convince me they are illegal.

As the race started the temperature went up abruptly and I started to feel overdressed. Or probably it was not really the temperature but the fat big incline on El Moro Ridge (aka BFI). This was brutal. I kept running for the first mile, and had to walk most of the second one – which was a quite embarrassing thing to do taking into consideration that it was just the 2nd mile of a short 9-mile trail run. I was so worn out by the BFI, that by mile 4 I saw a vision of Sue running in the opposite direction :)

After I passed the mile 4 I started to feel I am enjoying the race. Not sure whether it was cause my PowerGel dissolved in my stomach, or cause at last I got warmed up, or cause the BFI was eventually over, or as I was listening to one of my favorite Apocalyptica songs at the moment, or all of the above :)))

Bommer Ridge and Pacific Ridge consist of a lot of small ups and downs, and I was anticipating the big downhill on the last 2-3 miles of the course. The downhill turned out to be less steep and not without some unexpected uphill sections that did not make it to the elevation profile graph. Still it was enjoyable anyways. It is the first race when I got disappointed and almost discouraged when someone shouted that finish is just around the corner. I sprinted the very last downhill section to the finish line at around 6:30 min/mile to pass by another runner I had been chasing for quite a while.

My final time was 1:25:33. Not as fast as I expected. But good enough for the first place in the category of “Athletes with broken ankles” :)

Nuts!

2007-12-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

For quite a while I was under impression that ultra-running is a pretty young sport that did not exist before Karno published his Ultramarathon Man book. Well, I am slightly exaggerating the level of my ignorance, but it is close...

Another thing I was kinda sure about that ultra-running is mostly American sport that got some limited traction in Europe lately. I was completely shocked when I found out several months ago about Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc (UTMB) 100-mile race that draws over 2000 athletes to the start line every year. I actually lived for almost 3 years within just 30 miles from those trails in Switzerland and never heard about this race!

Anyways I came across today a profile of William Sichel, a Scottish ultra-runner. What really struck me is that he did Monaco Six Day race, where he ran… hold your breath here…
503 miles / 810 km

It does not change my definition of nuts though. Whenever it comes 3-digit numbers (100K, 100 milers, or even 50 milers) we are talking about folks that are seriously nuts and there is no better way to describe them :)
However running 503 miles is as crazy as it gets!

Now a quick historical note:

Did you know?
The Six Day race reached a peak of popularity in the late 1800's - the pedestrian era - with regular major indoor races in London and New York. The Scottish Indoor Six Day record dates back to 1882 and was set in New York by George Noremac (or George D. Cameron to give him his correct name - Noremac is Cameron spelt backwards and was his professional name) - 912.9km / 567.2miles!

You know what else is completely crazy? William holds Guinness World Records on a treadmill: 100 miles in 24 hours. I do not survive on a treadmill longer that 20-25 min and really hate this thing…

Laziness

2007-12-09T13:34:00.000-08:00

(Darn, I overslept my Sunday's long run! Again!)

Uphill Battle against Ladera Reservoirs

2007-12-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

I found a nice place in Ladera Ranch to work on my uphill running performance. This is a little stretch of paved road behind Mercantile East shops. It is only 0.3 miles from the entrance gate to the upper gate at the reservoirs with about 220ft of elevation gain.

After I ran it back and forth five times – 3 miles / 1100ft elevation gain – I got completely sober from my dreams of the new Twin Peaks 50 miler. We will see how it goes but most likely the first Holly Jim ascent will kill me early enough to even get a glimpse of the second one :)

Twin Peaks press leak

2007-12-07T23:40:00.000-08:00

There has been a press leak that the new Twin Peaks 50M is going to become one of the toughest 50M courses in the world and the only race in trail running history that features two crazy Holly Jim climbs on the same course. And it will have 17,000ft of overall elevation gain too.

Although it all still might not happen I feel captivated with the idea and will be honored to DNF there even if it happens on the 21st feet of the 1st Holly Jim climb :)

The only downside is that for some slow folks like me the trails running race will end up in a painful trail hike. I was murmuring (a lot) about Gary Hillard’s ruthlessness during the last 5-mile climb of Mt. Disappointment, and it was only 50K with just 5,600ft overall elevation gain! What will I be thinking of Jess during and after Twin Peaks then?!

By the way Jess’ 50K is not going to be a vacation on an island either: only one Holly Jim, but still 11,000ft of elevation gain. I cannot understand myself: why does it sound like fun?

High Desert Recovery

2007-12-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

We ran our standard 5K early in the morning today with Irina. And it felt even easier than usual. Less than 2 days after the race and I feel like I almost recovered already. Well at least physically, but not mentally yet. A part of me got stuck in the High Desert still running somewhere between the Wagon Wheel crossing and Pack Rats. A warning for all of those who did not do this Ridgecrest race before: beware, it is highly addictive!

By the way, I stole a couple of new watermarked pictures of Steph and me on the High Desert 50K course. They were all taken somewhere around the 1st aid station. Although the resolution is not very high, it is evident that I am high and need some professional help. I would call it High Desert overdose syndrome :)
P.S. Steph, you were right: I need to throw away my camera and buy a new one. All the photos I made turned out to be too dark for some reason - although none of them was made against the sun.

High Desert 50K at Ridgecrest

2007-12-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

Executive Summary :)

Initially I planned on writing up a pretty quick recap from this race. But as it all happened just yesterday and I am still overwhelmed with it (and a part of me is still running on those trails unwilling to come back to the reality), the whole thing turned into something bigger than I expected. Here is a quick summary for those folks that value their personal time high enough not to go through the whole story:

High Desert 50K, December 2, 2007: Link
Place: 66 (out of 226) - Overall results
Bib: # 83
Distance: 31.1 miles / 50 km
Net Time: 5:27:49
Average Pace: 10:32 minutes/mile
Elevation Gain: about 2200 feet
Blisters: 0
Black toe nails: 0
Running Shoes: my old Asics Gel-Trail Attack II with 550 miles on them

1. The Road to Ridgecrest

Ridgecrest was supposed to become my second ultra. At least I hoped so despite all the odds. I developed a terrible cold just a week before the race. I guess these were those chilly streams in O’Neal Park, and running in wet shoes to blame for it. Feeling all sick and congested I started to contemplate whether it is reasonable at all to go to Ridgecrest feeling like that. And all of a sudden I am getting that sad email from Jess that Twin Peaks is cancelled this February. So I was thinking if I DNS Ridgecrest and will not have Twin Peaks – the two races I had been anticipating since my first ultra in August – it would leave me with just Leona Divide in April... Long story short, despite my cold I decided to go to Ridgecrest and see on the spot what it looks like, crossing my fingers and toes I will feel better.

As Ridgecrest is an over-three-hour drive from OC, we booked a hotel there. The official race hotel – Heritage Inn – was already completely booked – and I had to pursue other options. The only other 3-star hotel at Ridgecrest was Econo Lodge with some spotty reviews and low rating on Travelocity. How bad can it be if it got those three stars, – I asked myself when booking it? Well, I should have trusted those reviews in the first place and consider some of the 2-star options! The receptionist was totally unfriendly, inflexible about delaying check out for a couple of hours as they did in other places (despite the fact that the hotel was mostly empty), the lobby and the room had a look and feel of a cheap motel… The only advantage of this place was that the room was spacious and clean.

Ridgecrest looked pretty huge when we approached it and saw the city lights spread all over considerable territory. But it turned out to be mostly one-street type of a city: all the shops, hotels and restaurants are located around the China Lake Blvd, while all the other streets seem to be residential. After we (that is my dear support team – Irina and Sonya – and myself) checked in we easily found the race HQ at St. Ann’s school, where we got my bib, a goodies bag with a very cool long-sleeve race shirt with a cool tarantula picture on it, and had a carbo-load dinner over there kindly organized for the runners by the St. Ann’s perish. After that we paid a visit to the local Starbucks (we are all Starbucks addicts including Sonya) and local K-Mart where Sonya got herself a new winter jacket.

Did I mention that it was dead cold at Ridgecrest – something around 30-35F – and pretty windy too? I was really wondering back then whether I was doing the right thing participating in the race. It’s definitely my coldest run so far :)

2. The Start

Next morning at 6am sharp Stephanie and Thomas picked me up at our hotel’s lobby. I was really happy I did not have to wake up my wife and daughter that early to drive me to the start. If I were Karnazes I would probably just run up there as it is only 6 miles from the hotel, but last time I checked I had a different last name, and 50K still was a big deal for me as it is – without adding an additional 10K to it :)

The start/finish area is located at the sports complex of the local college at the city’s south foothill boundary. The morning was less windy than the evening before, but very cold. After we took the-last-still-alive pre-race pictures, I put on my headphones and listened to Apocalyptica for a while to charge myself before the race. I could not take my iPod mini with me as its battery does not last any longer than 4 hours anymore.

The race started in the morning dusk at 7am. I was wearing shorts, two technical long-sleeve shirts and gloves. It was very cold but I was hoping it should get warmer after the sunrise. Most of the runners were wearing long-sleeve shirts, jackets and/or sweaters. A lot of folks were also having on long tights under (or instead of) their shorts. There was just one tall long-haired guy (no, it was not Greg) who did not have any shirt at all. I was getting extra cold just looking at him :)

3. The First Half of the Race

I caught up Stephanie within the first 5 minutes into the race, and ran with her for quite a while. She was wearing the same brick-red race shirt as I did, black shorts and Asics shoes – again just like me. I guess we looked like twins in our matching outfits, although when I said it aloud a couple of guys noticed the Steph is a much more good-looking twin of two of us :)

We were running at an average pace of about 10:50 minutes/mile. I felt very comfortable, almost like ready for the second 50K lap after we finish the first one. The view was as spectacular as it gets. We were running through the hills in a mostly-flat valley surrounded by distant mountains lit up by morning sun.

The air was crisp and clear: no smog, no fog, almost no clouds. We could see pretty distant mountains up to hundred miles away from us. I started to get a weird feeling that we were not running but flying though those hills: if I had seen anything like that before, it was always from an airplane window.

Between the 1st and 2nd aid stations we caught up a runner who twisted her ankle just 6 miles into the race. She could barely walk and told us she was planning to DNF at the next aid station. As I was on the peak of my race excitement I felt especially sorry for her. Unfortunately I did not ask her name and do not remember her bib number – so I cannot say if she managed to continue or had to drop out from the race. There were only 4 DNFs out 351 runners, which is incredibly low!

4. The Second Half of the Race

Almost every time I am running a race I tend to perform well and burn out during the first half of it and really struggle painfully crawling to the finish line during the second half. This time I decided to really keep myself under control and run the first 15 miles conservatively. I constantly felt that urge to run faster but succeeded in ignoring it for the first half of the race reminding myself of my crippled OC Marathon and Mt. Disappointment experience :)

Around mile 14 when we hit another long uphill and everyone switched to walking, it became more difficult to trick Steph into running with me. At first it was enough to run uphill in front of her and get my camera out. Once she saw that camera she always was starting to run fast towards me either to look nice on my photos or to really beat me up for fooling around. However at some point this thing stopped working and I had to continue the rest of the way on my own – as it turned out later just a little bit ahead of Steph.

Half into the race I still felt full of energy. Although I had a couple of big up-hills to go, there was nothing you could call a “climb” in front of me. Once I imagined that it was little different than just an ordinary half marathon going forward, my fun flying-over-the-hills run ended. I got kinda competitive and started to count runners I was passing by, which kept me both entertained and motivated. By the time I crossed the finish line I counted 64 of those. I was ready to subtract from my sum anyone who would pass by me but it somehow never happened.

One of the most challenging of the runners I was chasing there turned out to be … Shelli! I was running after her on a long ascent for good 15 minutes before I managed to catch up. She looked very strong as if she were running just a 10K trot or something like that.

At some point I managed to catch that tall long-haired guy who was running without a shirt. He was #56 on my list as far as I remember. He is a much faster runner than I am but got injured and it slowed him down.

Somewhere 20 miles into the race we noticed huge puffs of black smoke in the valley. It looked like a big intense chemical fire that was put out and started again, then put out again, and so on. It was pretty far from us – at least 30 miles – but we could clearly see it. The only logical explanation I could come up with was Martian invasion – I recall similar puffs of black smoke in Wells’ War of the Worlds. But in reality it turned out to be just a bunch of tests of the local firefighters that were trying different fire retardants over different types of fuel.

5. Aid Stations

The course was extremely well marked with blue-yellow ribbons and huge white arrows. There were absolutely no crossroads or side trails where it would not be evident straight away where to go next.

The aid stations where located almost every 3 miles – there where 9 of those along the 50k course. I guess I could easily survive it not carrying any water with me at all (I had one 20oz hand bottle with Gatorade) – just like most of the folks do during road marathons.

All the aid stations where perfectly packed with drinks, food and extremely friendly volunteers. Are not volunteers always friendly during those trail races, by the way? – I bet they are, but I was so knocked out by heat and crazy climbs at Mt. Disappointment that I did not have a chance to notice that :-)

This was also the first time when I could easily eat solid food during a race. I had a bunch of salty potatoes on most of the aid stations. Plus I was using those Clif Shot Bloks too. Usually I have a problem even with gels and after mile 15 into a race (or even a long training run) I cannot eat anything anymore…

Three last aid stations had a lot of Christmas decorations and ornaments all over the bushes. One of them had a sign “Sorry, No Beer!” Another station had a couple of beer bottles on the table, but I am not completely sure they where actually serving it to runners :)

6. The Finish

The finish line was a bit confusing. You can see it and almost touch it as the sports complex is in front of you. You pull yourself together, run as fast as you can thinking it is the finish line, but then you get diverted around a stadium. All right, now you recognize the road and know exactly where the finish line is, but you are diverted again and need to run around a huge parking lot with all the cars to get to it.

Usually it gets easier if you have a GPS and know how far you might be from the finish. But it did not work for me this time – my Garmin switched off about 10 times during the race and lost about 3 miles of the course overall…

On the last stretch of the course – right before I found out I need to go around the darn parking lot – I met Irina and Sonya. Irina was happy seeing me as one piece and much earlier than expected. Sonya did not even recognize her dad at first – probably did not really come as one piece after all :)

I was not sure about my time but I knew I broke 5:30!
As it turned out afterwards my final time was 5:27:49.
Oh, did I mention that it is my PR? I was destined to PR in Ridgecrest. It was the second 50K in my life. And as my previous 50K time was a snail-like 7:55, it was not that difficult to improve it – especially at Ridgecrest.

Shelli and Steph both broke 6 hours too and finished in 05:37:16 and 05:52:53 respectively. Evidently Steph picked up too and set a new PR as well.

The race was won by Jorge Pacheco who came in 3:31:41, and there were 6 other guys after him that did the race under 4 hours.

Another great thing about the finish line was … that hot shower at the college gym. It was the first race in my life I drove away from dry and clean :)

7. The Aftermath

In terms of the aftermath this race is pretty unique too. I was running in my new Injinji socks (thanks for the great advise, Jess!). Plus I covered my feet with Bodyglide in every spot I have or used to have blisters. Whether it is the former or the latter the result is incredible. The first race I got neither black toe nails nor blisters.

In a word I had a bunch of first-ever race experiences including this longest race recap ever - and I should say you are totally nuts if you had enough patience to get up to this paragraph :)

Another thing is that I can walk today – even down stars. I am pretty sure I was running as fast as can during the second half of the race. Does it mean I am getting used to this thing and I will not be crippled for over a week after each race as I used to?

How painful an average after-race recovery should really be in order not to feel like a slacker after a race?

8. My Goals

I had three goals for this race: the secret one, which was 5h; the real one = 5:30h (I managed to beat this one); and a conservative one just in case something goes wrong = 6:30h.

Another “bonus goal” I had was to run all the up-hills and completely refrain from walking. Apart for a couple of minutes when I was sipping Gatorade from my hand bottle, I was running all the time. This is certainly not a big deal as there were no steep climbs, but still feels like an achievement.

As a conclusion I would like to add a quote I proudly stole from Sarah’s blog the other day:

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach." -- Benjamin E. Mays

More pictures from the race:

High Desert 50K, 2-Dec-07

Forthcoming Rat Race in OC

2007-11-28T17:40:00.000-08:00

As the Twin Peaks has been officially postponed till November 2008 in best case, I tried to locate another race somewhere nearby in February:
http://www.socalultraseries.org

The best I could find so far is the Orange Curtain in February 2008.
http://www.oc100k.com

Basically it is a 3 mile course (or 10K out and back) you do either 5 times (shorter 50K variant of the race) or 10 times (if you are completely nuts). "100K" sounds totally scary to me as it is a three-digit number. But if we convert it into miles the number becomes more reasonable and manageable: “just” a 60 miler with a couple of bonus miles at the end :)

Overall elevation gain is “blistering” zero as the course is completely flat :)

I will totally miss mountains and all the scenery but on the other hand no need to carry camera all the way (or otherwise constantly regret I did not care to take one).

This should be something similar to those 12h and 24h rat races.

The best part of it the race is held in Cerritos, which is pretty close to us.
The worst part – I never tried anything like this before but I guess this out-and-back course should bore me to death :)

Fall in O'Neill Park

2007-11-25T18:34:00.000-08:00

No, I did not fall. I meant "autumn". And it is totally spectacular in O'Neill Park :)

I had my last “long” run before the Ridgecrest race in O’Neill Park today. Well, it was only 8 miles, which qualifies as a long run only during a pre-race taper period.

As much as I tried I did not manage to keep my feet dry there - thanks too all those streams you have to cross in the canyon.

There is no shortage of poison oak in the canyon either. It is bright red this time of year and you can even enjoy seeing it all over the place - as soon as you don't get into it :-)

Mont-Blanc videos

2007-11-19T21:52:00.000-08:00

Just came across a couple of cool old videos from Mont-Blanc 2006 race on YouTube:

What is really amazing is too see this absolutely enormous crowd of the 2000+ runners at the start of a 100-mile race!

Sitton Peak

2007-11-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Today I ran to the Sitton Peak with Linda, Andy, Jim and Oline. We parked next to the Candy store on Ortega highway and started off on the same Morgan trail we did before. It was pretty chilly this morning – around 50 degrees – and windy too. We were all wearing long-sleeve shirts – except for Oline who was wearing a t-shirt. The rest of us regretted wrong clothing decision almost right after we registered at the trailhead.

Usually morning chill goes away slowly (or at least gradually) during the first hour or so. But this time it was different. Right after we hit the switchback ascent the temperature abruptly jumped from 50 to 80. At least it felt that way. It was like someone switched on a gigantic heater and turned off the wind, or as if we ran through some door into a heated room. We passed two or three more areas with the cool air but the temperature stayed pretty much up since then. The amazing thing is that this change happened in a matter of seconds.

Around 1.2 miles into the Morgan trail we turned right onto the Bear Canyon / Sitton Peak trail. It has a lot of small uphills and downhills, but in general it is pretty flat. Nevertheless those uphills wore me down pretty quickly for some reason and I had to walk several sections of the ascent. At the same time Jim ran pretty much all the way to the top – I could hardly get a shot of him as all I could see was his back – and even that mostly from quite a distance :)

The most exciting part was the final climb to the Sitton peak – it totally exceeded my expectations. The whole segment is about 0.4 miles long (or even less than 0.3 miles if we subtract a small flat section in the middle of the climb) with 410ft of elevation gain. With all due respect to my favorite Meadows ascent, I have to say that compared to Sitton climb Meadows does not feel like a climb at all.

The 360-degree view from the Sitton Peak above the cloud blanket covering Orange County was absolutely breathtaking as if rewarding us for inhumanly steep climb we had to do to get there.

We found a journal on the peak – right at the triangulation marker on the very top of it. Some guys wrote there that the only thing they had to regret about was they did not take any beer with them. I could only second their opinion.

As much as I love descents, going down from the peak was even less fun than going up. Let alone running was out of the question, I had to walk slowly leaning on boulders and carefully watching every step. Due to small gravel the trail was extremely slippery and despite I was moving slowly I still almost felt a couple of times. The outsole of my North Face Arnuva shoes, which usually provides enough traction on technical trails, felt as if it were absolutely flat and smooth providing almost no grip at all.

The distance from the Candy shop to the Sitton Peak is about 5 miles, which makes it 10 miles out and back. As we got back to Ortega, we went to the Candy store. It is a very neat little place featuring a lot of candies indeed and an ancient-looking fire truck in front of it. The store also has a big fridge with cold drinks, and the latter was the only thing I could think about for the last couple of miles of our run after I ran out of my Gatorade. The Snapple ice tea I got there was arguably the best Snapple I ever tasted in my life :)

More photos from our run:

Sitton Peak, Nov-07

Sitemeter, cheating & Badwater :)

2007-11-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

I noticed some strange search activity surge through the Sitemeter today: several distinctively different people (Tennessee, Illinois, California) were searching info on “cheating at Badwater in 2007”, or “Badwater cheaters 2007”, etc. Such searches never came up in my stats before. Was there some press release recently about something like that?

While trying to find out what is going on with that I discovered a cool AdventureCORPS' archive of Badwater and Furnace Creek 508 race magazines (all in PDF format):
http://www.adventurecorps.com/downloads/index.html

Just went through the most recent Badwater magazine:
http://www.adventurecorps.com/downloads/bw/2007racemag.pdf
It contains a detailed historical note about the race as well as a bunch of interviews and useful pieces of advise about running in high-temperature conditions, although the latter does not seem to be extremely applicable to us right now: I even had to use running gloves a couple of days ago :)

Runners. Yeah, we're different.

2007-11-13T22:57:00.000-08:00

It was such a neat campaign! It beats even Pearl Izumi with their "We are not joggers!" slogan. It is funnier and less arrogant, and resonates with me one more than a Pearl Izumi's promise of dead bodies on "dumpster-laden back alleys". Pearl Izumi is a bit too serious and even grave at times. Adidas laid out exactly the same message, but it sounds like fun and does not intimidate anyone.

Not sure when Adidas did this campaign, but it was definitely before I got into running. So I was not among its target audience at that time - otherwise I would surely remember it!

Here are more posters from the same campaign:
http://www.chayden.net/Runs/Adidas/index.htm

P.S. Jess, thanks a lot for posting this link on the OCTR site today!

El Moro 15 Miler

2007-11-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

We have had an amazing run this morning in Emerald and El Moro Canyons. I overslept though, and had to rush to get there on time – so I forgot the camera – and no one else had one... But this was really the only hiccup… Well, almost the only one – after we hit the crazy uphill between miles 4 and 5 Steph decided to head back to her car as she did not feel quite herself this morning. As she seemed to be confident about finding the way back I did not run back with her. Thanks to Greg who took a role of my conscience this time and made it clear he would never let Steph go back alone like that, we were worried about her whereabouts until we eventually got to the parking lot and found that Steph’s car is gone already.

I forgot to mention, by the way, there were 7 of us, who left the Park Ridge at 6:30am this morning: Diego, Greg, Jeff, Ryan, Shelli, Steph, and myself.

The first 3 miles we had a pretty curvy single-track trail with a thick brush on both sides and a nice canopy above. After that we ran in a canyon surrounded by rocky hills with a lot of natural caves in them. There were so many of them that the place looked like a cavemen’s city :-)

At mile 4 we touched down Laguna Canyon road – right on the opposite side from the Stair Step trail – and ran uphill for a couple of miles. Then after a crazily exciting downhill we found ourselves in Emerald Canyon. We ran it all the way west until we found ourselves in front of a rather high fence with a barbwire on top, protecting some posh Laguna Beach gated community from trail runners and other animals. But we managed to sneak in anyways constantly looking around in anticipation of a SWAT team and helicopters – or at least several guards with guns :-)

We ran along PCH for a while until we reached the Crystal Cove Park, were we started on El Moro Ridge, than took Eastern Cut Across to the El Moro Canyon, and eventually Slow ‘N Easy trail to the Bommer Ridge that got us to our Park Ridge parking lot gate, which was exactly mile 15 of our run. I was pretty impressed with Ryan’s precision :-)

As Ryan said about the Slow ‘N Easy trail, it was Slow indeed but we almost never got to the Easy part. I guess it is “easy” only compared to Elevator trail, which is a mile shorter with the same elevation gain. I should try it next time.

Here is Jeff's post about our today's run:
http://www.breakingthetape.com/blog/archives/008179.html

The Meadows scored again

2007-11-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

I was anticipating Saturday morning for the most of the week nurturing the thought of my forthcoming revenge on the Meadows trail ascent in Aliso Canyon. Last Sunday I burned out very early and just walked up almost all of it. When I thought about it afterwards it seemed a little ridiculous that I could not push myself to run for just one mile… well, one pretty steep uphill mile… but a mile is just a mile after all…

So I got there this morning determined to conquer the darn thing this time and run all the way to the top. I managed to run (or better to say jog to be brutally honest about my incredible performance) for the first 0.6 mile of the climb, but could not help switching to walking after that.

Still I managed to pass by a group of mountain bikers on my way up. Those guys were definitely struggling more than I did as they also had those bikes to carry – and sure enough they were walking up too.

The Meadows-Dmitri score is 2:0 now. But I will be back!