One Tardy Squamish 50 Recap

Photo rip off from "Mr. Most Ultra's in a Season" himself,  Josh Barringer

I got me one these medals in what I have since called the hardest athletic undertaking I  have ever done. Slightly over fifty miles and somewhere near 10,000 feet of climbing, my mantra became one of two things: "every step is progress" or "I get to stop running soon". Fortunately the latter came after 70k and it really was to be soon.

The former began after kilometer 40ish, where the course comes out onto Perth Drive. Prior to that I was cruising mantra-less and absolutely loving the single track likes of Rigz n' Zen, Crouching Squirrel..., Credit Line, 4 Lakes, Made in the Shade, Ed's Bypass, Endo, and Roller Coaster. 

Photo Credit: Glenn Tachiyama - Just off Debecks & into Rigs n' Zen with Pricey. Thanks, Pricey!

As many of you know, Roller Coaster spits you out onto Perth Drive and so begins a kilometer of road running before the flow-sucking parasite that is that f'n bark mulch trail over to the first of too many Fire Service Road (FSR) loops. My mantra got me up "Mount Olympus" to the top of Quest University where I'd see my cheering squad (and Brian McCurdy who's just a swell dude). The 100 meter climb wasn't my favorite, but a necessary evil to reaching my drop bag for the first time. Big smiles from my wife and daughter and huge crowd of half marathon excitees. Coconut water down, a second bottle, a shot of sunscreen, and the most unromantic body glide teste rub of all time. I was off again with a very very temporary renewed existence. Trotting up the FSR with the likes of Adam Campbell and other half marathoners in tow, I dug into my mantra again. Every step is progress when who should come into view, the author of my mantra by Twitter, Mike Palichuk. Smiling ear to ear he sent me across the flank of the the mountain to the dreamiest single-track of the day. Across George's Bridge and the Mashiter FSR to ascend Skookum and descend the Powersmart series, across the road and down Fred's into Word of Mouth. At the end of Word of Mouth, I stayed right and slipped into a trail I'd never run before. It was fabulous and best of all, spit out half way up "Mount Olympus" again to my drop bag. I didn't have to run all the way from the bottom to reach kilometer 58. 

This is when I started to realize how hot it was. McCurdy looked at me and said, "Hot, huh?" And he wasn't talking about himself. I dropped a bottle, misted myself in Kinesys, grabbed some more food, and off I went realizing he was right. It was HOT! I hadn't noticed until he told me how to feel.

As I do in most ultra distance races, I started to focus on segmenting the remainder of my run. FSR and Pseudo Tsuga, FSR to Powerhouse Plunge and into the final aid station of the day. After that came Crumpit Woods and that wasn't even on my mind yet. Nor should it have been. 

Cursing the name Gary Robbins and tootling up that FSR again...YES! AGAIN, the second loop wasn't so bad but dropping into Pseudo Tsuga wasn't as dreamy as I thought it might be. A former old school downhill trail, this thing has been buffed up with smooth flowing corners. What is incredible on a bike however isn't always incredible on legs with 60+ kilometers in them. The descent was tough and I oddly wished for the FSR again as it would lead me to the right this time and up toward the Powerhouse Plunge and my final segment.

It was good to see others suffering here as I passed four runners to find out they had black numbers indicating they were running the full as well. At this point I was looking for anything to bring morale up. With little chat in me I left them behind, cleared the Plunge and started thinking about the final aid station and my journey to the finish. Tired legs or not, the Plunge was wicked. It's fast and turny and technical; just the wake up I needed before seeing my family at the final aid station. A few smiles and cheeky jokes from Ward Beemer, a kiss from Lara, along with two glasses of Coke and off I went into Crumpit Woods. I really worked hard at this section because I knew it would be easy to lay off and walk all the hills. Trouble is there are too many hills and I'd be walking most of it. Running took just about the same amount of effort as did walking anyway so it made sense to push it. I kept thinking, "I'm actually going to finish this and my body is fine". Early on I had expected an injury or something to plague me.  The run down the asphalt of Plateau Drive didn't bother me at all. It was after exiting the Smoke Bluffs parking lot that my eyes started closing. I was starting to fall asleep in mid stride and was talking to myself in order to stay awake right until I crossed the finish line in 9 hours 30 minutes and in 12th place.

By 9 hours and 31 minutes, and still in 12th place,  I was laying on the grass with my very excited daughter feeding me watermelon and flaunting the medal I was given at some point that I don't recall.

My girls fed me sandwiches and Pricey's crew, Mr. McGregor, kept me smiling with his silly banter. (Special thank you to McGregor too, for bringing my lost water bottle to the start line for me). It wasn't long before Pricey came cruising through looking great. Congratulations, Chris. What a brilliant season you've had as you go into your last one next weekend, Meet Your Maker.

Almost two weeks later and after some serious reflection, I'm certain I'd challenge this race again. Gary and Geoff did an outstanding job of showcasing Squamish and making this race an instant classic. I have run/raced 50 miles many times however, and I must say that never has it been as hard. By all accounts this was a very challenging 50. Finishing times were slower than expected even in the top of the field. My greatest relief was hearing Ellie Greenwood say it was one of the harder ones she's done, if not the hardest.

Hard or not, I'm grateful for a full day and the achievement. Cheers to Gary, Geoff, Squamish, and so many Volunteers.

Ahead of Squamish 50

I've been thinking a lot about this weekend's Squamish 50 and what advice I might give myself or what advice others might give me. Guys like Krupicka might say, run shirtless while Killian might say, in broken English, have fun and run fast up hill. Gary Robbins has told me start slow; slower than you think is appropriate. Distance Runwear's Dave Cressman told me via Twitter, "just remember it is supposed to feel as hard as it is so don't be disappointed by the pain but enjoy it".  My mother simply says, "How far? And why? I hope you like running".

I'm know I'll enjoy the day and I'll likely take it easy on the hills with my shirt on, but this video is exactly what I needed. Take the 12 minutes. Tim Noakes is brilliant.

The Mind of the Injured

A while back, I wrote a blog questioning "when are you a runner?". Some of the responses were hysterical and mostly based on what one is not - "a jogger". A jog is "what you do to warm up for running" or "that is what my high school PE teacher made us do", were some of the responses.  Would a jogger force him or herself out the door to train for an upcoming race regardless of pain? No way! This is the job of a "runner".

For this reason, I evidently think of myself as a runner for injury has once again reared it's ugly head in the form of foot pain.

Something strange is causing numbness, tingling and spear-like pain in my feet. It started a few months ago as a warm sensation on the lateral and distal portion of my right foot and has slowly wormed it's way into being occasionally debilitating. Several recent runs have become beautiful forest walks, but still I race, 5 Peaks Squamish on June 9th, Redbull Divide and Conquer, on June 16th, and Comfortably Numb, this coming weekend. The training runs that haven't been debilitating are just the dangling carrot I need to convince myself I still CAN race. 

Here in lies the problem for most runners with injuries however. We tend to bargain our way back out the door. Who wants to miss a day? We're driven and seldom do you meet a runner who says, "I'd rather  not run a P.B. at my next race so I can skip some training days".  When we are plagued we hit the computer and after a short Google search highlighting our personal ailments and a hasty self diagnosis, we find a way to justify the most conservative approach to managing the injury. Rarely is rest accepted and no way could surgery ever be required. And who's going to let a physiotherapist or chiropractor tell them what to do? A couple ibuprofens and some favoring of the injured area and off the runner goes to tackle his long run day which becomes even longer and slower due to walking back to the car in a puzzled and depressed state. "What could've gone wrong out there?",  he thinks., while completely ignoring the fact that he ran with his fingers crossed the entire time.

So why do runners do this? Betterment. In John L. Parker, JR.'s book, Again to Carthage, the sequel to Once a Runner, he writes the following and it totally wreaks of our will to rationalize running injured.

"When you're a competitive runner in training you are constantly in a process of ascending. 

That's it. 

It's a simple idea, but the more I thought about it, the more profound it became to me. 

It's not something most human beings would give a moment of consideration to, that it is actually possible to be living for years in a state of constant betterment. To consider that you are better today than you were yesterday or a year ago, and that you will be better still tomorrow or next week or at tournament time your senior year. That if you're doing it right you are an organism constantly evolving toward some agreed upon approximation of excellence. Wouldn't that be at least one definition of a spiritual state?" 
Quenton Cassidy -

The issue of injury, as it pertains to the true and injured runner is simply that the constant state of betterment is halted. And more poignantly, that others are continuing to develop and become better while you sit and wait out your ailments. If running is so deeply seeded in your mind and body so as to be spiritual, it is easy to see why injuries that prevent one running can be so depressing. And why we push ourselves to get out there in pain seems sane and justifiable. 

Two pain free runs this week following a decent, but conservative race weekend, and I look forward to Comfortably Numb this Sunday. The odd throb in my foot tells me I should lay off until after receiving professional advice, but my spirit says race. If it goes well, I'll convince myself  I'm fine. If it goes badly, that little voice inside my head will be saying I knew it!

The last week

Over the last week, I've had some incredible runs and races (that I watched). I've heeded some of the advice of Adam Campbell and have been enjoying climbing and descending more than ever before. My lovely Lara ran the Iron Knee last Sunday and I got a chance to watch a race for a change. Seeing the lead group come through still blows me away. Oliver Utting barely looks like he's working, but I guess when you weigh a buck twenty-two, how much work is required. For the record, he said it was hard.

The day before the race I volunteered at North Shore Athletics for the package pick up. It's my first time and I love this job. You get the chance to see everybody in their civilian clothes, not covered in salty residue, and smiling. I had some great chats and loved getting to know a larger group of the North Shore's running community. The next morning I was able to cheer on so many people by name and I loved it. Some of them had no idea who I was, but smiled and pranced away in a better place...I think.

Monday I got an email from my Dirty Duo teammate, Arthur Gaillot, asking if I'd be interested in racing with his fellow Nomad machine, Chris Johnston, in the Red Bull Divide and Conquer. What is that, I wondered?  After a quick Google search of a race that is in my own background and that I'd never heard of, I gladly accepted. All we needed was a paddler. Someone who knows the Capilano River like the back of his hand. A good friend of mine know's paddlers well and hooked us up with James Mole, a guy, he believes has paddled the Capilano more than anybody on earth. Sounds like we found our guy. James accepted the invite excitedly and now we have a team for June 16th's Divide and Conquer.

I started asking some questions and doing some research and found that the route went over some trails I'd never been on. The terrain is my backyard, but I didn't recognize the names, JetBoy, Dreamweaver, or Executioner. This information came from local ultra running star, Gary Robbins so I knew it must be accurate. By Wednesday I'd determined that I'd been on JetBoy and I'd been on Executioner. The latter on a bike and the former about five years ago. By yesterday, granted not in it's entirety, I'd seen the whole course. It's going to be tough. It's a 12-13km course that'll likely take near two hours. Below are a few pictures from the course.

Entrance to Executioner of Dreaweaver

Entrance to Executioner from Mountain Highway (off 6th switchback)

Executioner Steep Section

Cool Archway entrance to Dreamweaver

In the works...

On June 16th the North Shore of Vancouver will be speckled with mountain runners, mountain bikers, and kayakers in Red Bulls first adventure style relay.

I'm currently working on a team and it's looking good. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll be registered with a couple of fine fellas.

Marx and the Nomads

I've never been so proud of the fact that I'm training under Monika Marx. I've seen incredible changes in my performance and overall function as an athlete. Check out this spot light on Monika and the incredible team she trains, one of whom is my 2012 Dirty Duo partner, Arthur Gaillot. A machine and a great guy to boot.

Mondays Chat with Salomon's Adam Campbell

With about 35 people in plastic, folding chairs and paper plates full of cookies and fruit sitting on their knees, Adam and I sat down to share out some of our experiences in running distances of 50k or more with a particular focus on Knee Knacker and training for such events. With all of Adam's successes, I certainly felt a little out of place sitting up there with him, and kept assuring myself that regardless of success every experience can be a teacher for others. Besides, the presentation was more of a "Tom ask Adam the questions and Adam respond as he likes" format. It worked out brilliantly, as many of those who attended also asked some great questions and were able to share their experiences too.

For those of you who really want to know though, Adam is an open book. He doesn't lie about his training and is happy to share his "secrets".  He truly is open to questions and to bettering the trail running experiences of others with his expertise. He tends to practice the obvious in that he runs to become a good runner, he climbs to become a good climber, and so on. Adam does not believe in the gym for himself as a runner, but, in the name of health, encourages others to do what works for them. A point he reiterated many times was just that - what I do works for me...and my unbreakable, 127 pound, 5'6" frame (that last part was my own addition although true). It doesn't mean it is for everyone. Like most ultra runners, Adam runs an incredible number of miles per week, but only estimates the distances. For him, it is more important to log time on his feet on race specific terrain. For example, he spends a lot of time climbing BCMC and the like with his next race having over 8500 meters of vertical, the Ultra Trail de Mount Fuji in Japan on May 18th. How does a lawyer have time to log the 10.5 hours that he ran last Saturday or occasionally run two or three times per day, you're wondering, right? So was I. Adam recognizes his family situation as unique in that it allows him a great deal of independence. As many of us have families on top of our jobs it's tough to get out sometimes. Adam jokingly credits his supportive wife, Lauren Groves/Campbell, and then mentions her living over seas to do her own training.

In his opinion and for his type of racing, Adam says speed work is overrated. Climbing quickly will reap the same benefits and being sure to maintain tempo runs. But the greatest key he says, is consistency. Be out there regularly and often. After many years of pushing his body hard, Adam doesn't believe in over training, just under recovering.

And there are your Coles Notes. It was a terrific night and I cannot thank Salomon West Vancouver enough for the great idea and for hosting. Adam, as I said before, not many people could publicly say they want to be one of the best ultra runners in the world without sounding arrogant. Your modesty and drive are inspiring.

Thank you and have a great trip to Japan. You can bet I'll be watching results. Please let us know where to look.