Recently Susan and I watched, “Unbreakable: The Western States 100″, which follows 4 top ultra runners and their journey to win the The Western States 100 mile race. It was an interesting film to watch, especially since it features Hal Koerner. Hal is the owner of Rogue Valley Runners and race director of the Lithia Loop trail marathon. I don’t personally know Hal, I only met him briefly after the Lithia Loop marathon, he put on an amazing race and was extremely nice. It just made the movie a little more interesting to have crossed paths with one of the runners.
It was nice to see even the elite ultra runners sometimes have to walk up hills. I always feel a bit like a wimp when I have to walk, it is nice to know everyone does it at some point. Without giving the end of the movie away, I will just say that Susan and I said, “wow” more than once.
I thought running 30+ miles was quite a feat, but after seeing all these people run 100.2 miles, I am just in awe. Susan and I agreed that the movie didn’t make us want to run 100 miles, but it made both of us want to a lot more trail races this year. I think we will stick to 25k and 50ks this year and maybe work our way towards a 50 miler in 2013.
If you love running or our curious about ultras, check out the move.
After watching it I knew we had to do the Skyline Rim 25k run. I sent her text and a few hours later she replied that she was signing up. I think we got the last two spots!
2012 is going a great year for trail running. We are still trying to figure out which 50k we are going to do, who knows maybe we will do a few.
2011 has been an awesome year of running for me, a few PSs, several goals accomplished and new distances obtained. I wish I had been better about blogging about things along the way and recapping races. I know that several weeks before a race I am always searching the Internet for race reports and I savoring every word I read. In 2012 I will be better about recapping my races.
2011 Running Milestones
Disney Princess Half Marathon
February 27 – 2:08:52
This was my annual half marathon with my dad. My step sister, step mom and sister-in-law also joined us. We had to get up at 3am for this race and I swore I would never do this again, I think the rest of the family did as well. It was difficult running in the Florida heat coming from the cold rain and snow in Oregon, but it was a lot of run running through Disney with all the other “Princesses”.
For the Love of Dove 5k
June 12 – 0:24:27 PR
This race benefited Dove Lewis a local non-profit animal hospital, which I got to run with my favorite 4 legged running partner, Oscar. I normally don’t want to pay to run a 5k, but I couldn’t resist a chance to run a race with Oscar. Oscar is an ex-sled dog, I am sure that helped with the PR and accomplishing my goal of running a 5k in less than 25 minutes.
Reeds Lake 5k and 10k
June 25 – 0:26:09 and 0:56:11
A local race in Grand Rapids, MI I ran this summer with my dad and Gretchen while visiting. It was nice that the 5k and 10k were back to back, so I was able to run both of them. The 5k was first and I ran it a little bit slower than I normally would of since the 10k was after.
Hood to Coast Team “Honey Buckets and Buckettes”
August 26 – 27 – 32:10:41
Hood to Coast has to be one of the most insane and fun things you can do as a runner. I had a lot of fun doing this with Susan, my dad and Chris W.
Hood to Coast explained
Columbia Gorge Half Marathon
October 23 – 1:55:04 PR
Susan and I have run this race for the last 3 years. This year they changed the route, which avoided the huge hill at the beginning, we were actually a little disappointed by this since we were training for the insanely hilly Lithia Loop Marathon. Moving the start meant they had to bus everyone to the beginning, which ended up causing the race to start 30 minutes late. Luckily the weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. Eliminating the hill at the start added a new hill in the middle of the race which we did not anticipate. I could of sworn this slowed us down a lot, but somehow we ended up PRing – 1:55:04.
Lithia Loop Trail Marathon November 5
5:10:08 – Goal Obtained: first trail marathon
Not my fastest race, but it is a close tie with Hood to Coast as the craziest and most fun. In the first 8 miles we gained almost 5000 feet of elevation. It snowed on us for 22 miles and there was already several inches of snow on the ground, which made for an interesting running experience. There were times when I could barely feel my lips or nose. The volunteers at the aid stations were awesome, every time we approached they asked what we wanted and made sure we refilled out water bottles. This was the first race where I had Sprite at an aid station, I could not get enough of it, and I never drink soda. The course itself was amazingly beautiful, once again it reiterated my love of trail running. I will probably do this race again in the future.
Birthday Run “Girls Gone Wildwood”
Ran all of the Wildwood trail 30.25 miles - November 27 – New distance
A few months ago during one of our long runs, Susan and I had the brilliant idea of running the whole Wildwood trail for our birthdays. I am blaming this insane idea on our “runner’s high”. We accomplished our goal. The Wildwood trail is 30.25 miles long we added on a little extra getting to one of our DIY aid stations, we probably ended up doing ~31miles/50km. It was difficult, cold, wet, muddy but effing awesome! Susan is the best running partner.
My dad called me yesterday morning to tell me that he ran a half marathon in Dallas in 2 hours. I had no idea he was running one, nor did he know that I was running one the next day. If he had realized I was running one he probably would of egged me on about beating him, and the fact that I am 31 years younger than him and I should really be running 1:35 or something crazy.
Of course the first thing I tell Susan when I see her is about the conversation with my dad, and I said, “It’s game on!” Susan’s brother Ted, who flew in for the run had told her months ago that we have to run the half in less than 2 hours if he was going to run with us. I hadn’t given much thought to actually trying to run the race in less than 2 hours until I talked to my dad.
My half marathon pr is 2:05 and we ran the same race last year in ~2:11.
They changed the start location this year for the Columbia Gorge Half Marathon and we had to wait 45 minutes for a shuttle to take us to the start line. The race ended up starting 20 minutes late because of shuttling everyone to the start. By the time the race started I just wanted to finish and get to Double Mountain for a beer, I didn’t care if we did it in less than 2 hours or not. Susan was still set on finishing the race in at least 2 hours, every mile she would check her watch and say we should be at X time, but wouldn’t actually tell me what time we were at. We were 1.2 miles from the finish, Susan checked her watch and said that we should be at 1:50, I finally asked her what time we were actually at. I was expecting her to say 2 hours, but she said 1:45. I thought, “holy shit we are actually going to do this!” We finished in 1:55! Of course the first thing I did was call my dad.
Susan and I are running our first 20 miler tomorrow! We are having John drop us off that the start of Wildwood and I left my car at Leif Erikson so we can stop part way through the run and refuel. It has been almost a year and half since I have ran this far, I am excited, unlike the first time I ran 20 miles and couldn’t sleep the night before
20 miler in Forest Park:
ww to wild cherry 0 – ~8 = 8 m
wild cherry – leif 1 = 9 m car break if we need it
leif to maple 0- 4.25 = 13.25 m
maple to ww 1 mile = 14.24
ww to dogwood 12.75 – 8.25 = 18.75
dogwood to leif .3 = 19.05
leif to car 1 = 20.05 of awesome
Today Susan and I ran 17 miles on Wildwood, via the Hardesty trail (Springville trailhead). I wasn’t really into the run when we first started out, it probably was a combination of not sleeping well because of Hood to Coast anxiety, more wine than water from the night before and running the day before. Luckily Bob ran the first 6 miles with us and kept us entertained with his stories, so I could just concentrate on running and waking up. By the time Bob left us I was feeling great, the feeling remained for the rest of the run. Somewhere around mile 11-12 we started talking about how we really wanted OJ and plotting on how we were going to get it and get Susan home in time for her appointment. Unfortunately by the time we made it to the car we didn’t have time to stop for OJ, after I dropped her off I headed straight to New Seasons for the coveted juice.
When I was checking out at New Seasons’ the cashier asked me how I was doing and I said, “good, no I am doing great!”. He asked me why my day was so great, and I replied that I had just got done with an awesome run in Forest Park. He asked me how far I went, I told him and he perked up and told me that he use to run ultras in the Sierras when he lived in California. I walked out of New Seasons with a huge smile on my face. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I bought everything I needed at New Seasons besides OJ. Doh!
Susan and I ran 12.5 miles on Friday in Forest Park. Our route was Leif Erikson – Alder – Wild Wood – Maple – Leif Erikson. The last 4.25 miles was on Leif and that about killed my feet, I much prefer ending our runs on the soft trails than the rocky old fire lines / forest roads. Being Friday morning there were barley any people out there, it was very peaceful. I wish I could figure out a way for us to be able to do all our long runs on Friday mornings.
Saturday John and I took off for a quick one night backpacking trip. At the last minute we chose to do Badger Creek Wilderness due to the low snow level everywhere else. I gave John 2 options: hard and not as hard, of course he picked hard (yay!). We started at the Gumjuwac trail head and climbed about 3000 feet to Lookout Mountain. We had amazing view of Hood, Jefferson. Rainier, Adams, and Mt St. Helens, but the horseflies were bugging John so we didn’t stick around long. We did hit a few patches of snow but nothing that kept you from finding the trail. We continued along trail 458 for a few miles until we came upon a TON of angry bees, someone must of upset their nest. I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to pass them, because it appeared they were in the middle of the trail. After carefully assessing the situation we realized they were in the V part of the switchback and not the actual trail. I put on my mosquito net mask and ran for it. After a another mile we started down hill on trail 477. We thought this was going to be an easy down hill to our camp site. Oh no we had to climb over and under quite a few trees. A few hours later we finally made it to our camp site, tired and happy.
The hike out in the morning was only 5 miles, but the first 2 miles were up hill on another unmaintained trail. So again we were climbing over and under a lot of trees. My legs are pretty scratched up from our little adventure. Once we made it to car it was 11:30 am, we were 30 minutes from Hood River and there was no question where we were going to have lunch. Double Mountain!
Thanks to only having to work a half day on Friday and Susan’s mother-in-law baby sitting, we were able to get our long run in for the week before I took off on my backpacking trip. We did ~11.25 miles in Forest Park. We started out at the Leif Erikson trail head, ran to ~4.25 mile to where Leif connects with Maple. We took a left on Maple and ran to Wildwood, which puts you at mile marker 12.75. We ran Wildwood to Wild Cherry which is between mile maker 8 and 7.75. We headed down on Wild Cherry to connect back with Leif and back to the car. We celebrated with very late lunch at our favorite food cart, Kitchen Dances.
Saturday morning Karrla and I headed out towards Bull of the Woods wilderness for our first backpacking trip of the summer. We weren’t quite sure which trail we wanted to do, but we were pretty sure we wanted to end up at Twin Lakes. We had originally thought we were going to start at the Whetstone tail head then after some debating we decided that we wanted to see the look out tower. We started out at the Bull of the Woods trail head, hiked a few miles in the snow with a gradual up hill to the look out tower. We were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the cascades: Mt Hood, Mt Adams, Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier, Mt Jefferson, and I am sure I am forgetting a few. It was breath taking. We continued down hill for 6 miles to the lake, the whole time I was trying not to think about the fact that I was going to have to walk back up this huge hill in the morning.
The lower twin lake is absolutely beautiful, still clear waters. Someone even hiked in with a raft and was floating around the lake. Somehow we lucked out and got one of the last camp sites next to the lake and we had the added bonus of a creek next to the site as well. As soon as we got there Karrla and I went and sat on a log next to the lake and drank wine (that we made Oscar hike in), it was really nice to sit with our boots off and rest. We hung out and chatted with our neighbors for a bit, ate a late dinner and passed out. I also have to add I didn’t get stung by one mosquito that night at the lake, it was different story on the actual hike.
I wouldn’t say the hike out was as epic as I thought it was going to be since the inclines were broken into 2 different segments, but they were difficult and I was glad when each one of them were done. We hiked back to the tail head via Pansy Lake, which was nice, wooded and blocked the sun for the most part, it didn’t offer the view we had the day before though. I think we estimated 20 miles and 3500-4000 feet of elevation gain over 2 days. Not bad.
Today we started our training for the crazy Lithia Loop trail marathon, there is something like 4000+ feet of elevation gain. I have been a little anxious this week about the whole thing, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to fit all long training runs in with everything else I am doing this summer and fall, backpacking, climbing South Sister, Bail, etc. I also want to be able to do the majority of my long runs with Susan, who is a new mom and has her own summer plans. I finally decided I am going to take this one run at a time, and I know we are both dedicated to doing the marathon even if we have to walk it, and despite our busy lives we will find a way to fit in our runs.
Our run today was 9.10 miles and 1400 feet of elevation gain. We started on the Wildwoood trail at the Pittock Masion, ran to the Dogwood trail to connect with Leif Ekikson. From Leif we ran to Aspen to connect back to Wildwood and back to the car. The cruel part of this loop is the last 2 miles is an unrelenting hill climb. We made it without walking and we ran a part of Wildwood we hadn’t done this year, which helps us with the Forest Park All Trail Challenge.
I haven’t done a good job of keeping up with our Forest Park runs, but if I don’t start documenting them we might end up doing the All Trail Challenge twice. Though that might not be a bad thing.
After several months of long runs in Forest Park we have determined it is much nicer to start on rocky Leif and end on softer Wildwood, trust me your feet will thank you for it.
Run for 1/20/2011
start at newton road
firelane 10 – leif 1m
leif to cleator (mile markers 11 – 5.25) 5.75 m
cleator to wildwood .1m
wildwood to firelane 7a/gasline (mile makers 14.75 – 20) 5.25m
firelane 7a to ridgetrail .5m
ridgetrail to wildwood .5m
ww to newton (mile markers 21-25.5) 4.5m
total: 17.60
Trail Notes: The Cleator trail is actually at mile marker 5.75 on Leif, so we added on a half a mile or so. It was pretty steep and muddy, we ended up walking it. Firelane 10 was a pretty steep down and up, one hell of a way to start 17+ mile run.
Run for 2/5/2011
Start at 53rd trailhead (new one!)
Dogwood (all of dogwood!) to Leif (just before L1): 1mi
Leif to Chestnut (Just before L3 1/2): 2.5mi
Chestnut to WW: .34mi
WW (W12.12) to Maple (W12.87): .75mi
ALL OF MAPLE: .61 + .34 + .31 + .13 + .59 + .48 + .75 + .43 = 3.64mi
Leif (L6.4) to wire gate trail (L7.12): .75mi
Wire Gate to WW (W18.2): .29mi
WW (18.2) to WW (W9.2): 9mi
Cooldown: Keil Trail cut over to trailhead (or along 53rd)
Total: 18.27mi
Trail Notes: Wire Gate is a muddy mess and pretty difficult to run up. Chestnut on the other hand is a great connector trail between Leif and Wildwood, not too muddy or steep.
