It was tough but rewarding last two weekends of racing. Bear with me, this is going to be a long post. I wouldn’t normally recommend five races in such a short time span but it all came together sort of unexpectedly and there was no backing out. And really, it’s circumstances like this that can have a big impact on what you thought was possible and increases your confidence in your fitness assuming it’s a positive experience.

So last weekend I arrived in Denver on Friday night for the Teva Mountain Games, picked out a rental car that I could sleep in, an HHR, and made my way to Vail, via a stop at Chipotle on the way. I got in about 9pm and drove around a bit to see if there was somewhere to park the car and sleep. If you’ve been to vail, you’ll know they frown on parking on the street anywhere in town so there were not a lot of options. I settled on the parking garage. That was a poor choice.  It may have been free parking but it definitely came at a price. Like no sleep. I could hear someone sneeze at the far end of the garage, it was hot, light, and smelly. I figured it would be somewhere I could park and not be harassed.  Man, I didn’t get harassed by any authorities, but I was constantly woken up by cars starting, people coming back from parties, etc. I can’t recommend a parking garage as a place to sleep. Lesson learned.

At 8am the next morning the gun went off for the Vail Pass Half Marathon. A 13.1, no make that 13.7, (apparently the half marathon is a bit longer in Colorado) gradual climb up to Vail Pass at 10,600ft. But, lucky for me, snow was still blocking the road up so at 10 miles they turned us around and we headed back downhill to the finish. Lucky for me because that downhill course change is all that put me into second. I wasn’t catching Matt Levassiur on the climb. It was brutal being at 9000ft and trying to go uphill. I might as well have been going up a wall. All the way up, I’m thinking to myself “why am I doing Pikes Peak later this summer?” Anyway, so it turned out well after 3.5 mi of downhill. I spent the rest of the day hanging out in Vail at restaurants, milling about at the Games, and catching up with the mountain runners in town.

Sunday morning I learned the secret to success is gorging yourself on over half a large pizza, a shot of good whiskey, and a quiet comfortable floor to sleep on. It’s good to know guys like Rickey Gates who can hook you up with a floor and a shot of whiskey the night before a race. The 10k Spring Runoff was awesome. One of the best (read: most treacherous) courses I’ve been on. Off-trail racing through mud, snow, grass, roots. The climb up included power hiking a ski slope, snow, and a long winding dirt road that was still brutal at that altitude. Once at the top though it was all down hill. Mario Macias just caught me at the top but two steps on the 300m snow field and he was on his face and Jeremy Freed was about 200m in front of me.  I was able to catch him within half a mile as I was in free fall mode down the ski slopes. They were wet, muddy, and slick.  I gained about 100-200m on him and hung on for the win. I found out that downhills are really nice and apparently a pretty strong suit of mine. Also, don’t sleep in parking garages.

The Teva Games were great. I’d highly recommend it as a place just to hang out for the weekend as there is a lot going on, great ice cream to be had, and a great crowd of multisporters to hang with. Did I mention that over the course of two and a half days I had 4 Chipotle burritos. Good burritos and cheapest food in Vail. I had a scoop of ice cream that cost me 7 bucks.

Monday after I was definitely tired. I took it easy for two days, did a track workout on Wed to get ready for the upcoming weekend of more back to back races then rested Thurs/Fri.

June 11^th and 12^th was another great weekend of racing. My coach had been bugging me to get in a 10km on the track as preparation for the Marathon trials coming up in January but I couldn’t find one this time of year anywhere. Well, finally I found one that didn’t have a ton of competition but it would work. And it was in Portland, only a 3hr drive. Well, then Sat morning I get a text that says most of the guys had transferred out of the 10km to the more stacked 5km but there was still one 29:00 guy in it so I decided to take my chance of having at least one guy to run with. 1 hour before the 10km I check in and find out that guy had transferred out as well. That was the last straw. I didn’t want to run 10km on the track anyway, let alone all by myself. So 20min before the 5km now, I decide I might as well get in a good solid effort 5km rather than time trial a 10km. By the way, 20min isn’t enough time to warm up…at all. I toed the line with a 10min jog, 2 x 30m strides, and a ton of adrenaline. Actually had a decent race. Definitely went out too fast and slowed a bit but still felt pretty strong on the last mile and almost reeled in the front pack for a PR…but not quite. Still happy with 2 sec off my PR at 13:56 with no significant track work.

At that point I couldn’t go back to Bend with having only run 5km when I already told everyone I was running 10. So, obviously, I jumped in the 10km. My plan was to pace whoever was leading through 5k but I got to 5k and me and Chris Boyle were all alone and he needed some help to the finish and I felt pretty good so I got in a good marathon prep workout with a fast 5km followed by a threshold pace 10km. Felt bad that I couldn’t get Chris a PR.

Pretty decent weekend so far. Unfortunately it wasn’t over yet. My buddy Matt and I still had to drive home to Bend, try to get some sleep and get ready for the USATF Half Marathon trail champs at 8am Sunday. Not sure what I was thinking when I told coach I’d found a 10km to do but also knew in the back of my mind I’d have to run 13 mi pretty hard the next day.

Warming up was a feat in itself Sunday morning. The plan became, “go out with whoever was leading, hang on, and make a break if I saw and opening.” Well, it worked out that my buddy Mario was going to push the pace early on and break me if he could. Ha, he knows better than that. (don’t worry, we like to trash talk each other) About 9 miles I was able to make a break on a downhill and had to push hard to the finish to hold him off by 17 sec. It was a good race and I’m certainly paying for it this week. I’m wiped and the legs are feeling beat but in a good way.

Definitely a great way to spend two weekends though. Now it’s back to getting in the miles, working on the aerobic capacity, hills, and get ready for tough summer workouts and races.  And it seems as though I’m following my teammate Megan Lund-Lizotte around as she finished a strong 3^rd against a tough field at the Half Marathon Champs this weekend, but really, she’s just following me. Really. See you at the Mtn Running Champs in two weeks Megan. 

So far to this point, I’ve avoided running a 10km on the track and so far I’ve still avoided running a fast one on the track. Guess that means I still have some unfinished business…and a disgruntled coach.

Looking forward to the mountain running champs in two weeks and watching my Montrail teammates rip it up at Western States. Good luck to everybody racing the next couple weeks.