Another long and awesome week of running in paradise (anywhere to run in the woods automatically becomes paradise by the way). Legs are tired, back is sore, eyelids are heavy. Sitting in SLC on my last leg of the journey home. Sorry, this is another long one. I’ve got to stop having such great weeks. They’re too much fun to keep to myself.

Last Tuesday I took off down to Reno/Tahoe for a few days of photoshoots with the esteemed Kevin Winzeler and Tim, the Mountain Hardwear Creative Director. I went down with the impression that with an upcoming race we’d head out for a few hours, take a few breaks and have some free time. Man was that vision shattered on the first day of shooting. It’s kinda fun to tell some friends, “yeah, I’m heading down to Tahoe for a photoshoot.” Just to impress them a bit. I gotta tell you though, it’s no picnic. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun, but it’s also hard. Wed we were on the side of a hillside in direct sun running back and forth for the camera. I must have done it 100 times. I’m just hoping that didn’t have a An hour hike up to the shoot location, 12hrs of shooting, and an hour hike down and we were embraced by darkness and fatigue. It was a great day but I was wasted. I had a small appetite after subsisting on trail mix all day so I downed a full plate of salad with the works, a full rack of ribs, two sides, and a huckleberry mudslide. Mmmm.

Up at 5:30 on Thursday we started out with some nice foggy shots in a great marshy area. Shooting with Amy and Ellie gave me a bit of a reprieve so I was able to stay out of the sun and try to recover a bit today. Still managed to get a workout in too. It was a bit more relaxing as there was no hike to get to shoot sites and with multiple locations we moved around and sat around a bit more. At day’s end Kevin and I took a quick dip in the lake. Ah, so refreshing. It felt great after being dirty and sweaty all day.

I know we got some great shots and video for some promo stuff. I think you’ll be seeing some at OR if you happen to make it. You might be wondering where it was we were shooting but I purposely left out a few details so you can use your imagination until you see the real thing.  We were shooting the new gear and run apparel for Spring 12 and you’ll see some of it in the video attached to the blog. It’s some great stuff. New light tech shirts, shorts, running packs and a vest. And sweet trucker’s hats.

Thursday evening ended with a great party at the Mtn. Hardwear compound with all the big names in the ultra world coming out. Kinda made me want to run it but for now just being around the energy of WS is enough for me. Someday though, someday.

Friday morning I took off headed for New Hampshire. I was certainly going to miss Jesse’s cooking and Tim’s full service carry-on espresso in the morning. I don’t really even drink coffee but with an espresso machine he traveled with I couldn’t refuse.

On the ground in NH, I met up with Mario and our host family. Saturday we went over the course and got a short run in. The travel day off did me well and I felt pretty good. After the long photo shoot I wasn’t sure how I was going to be recovered but all seemed well.  Part of what makes the Mtn Running Championships special is the emphasis put on homestays. I know it’s more work for the race organizers but I really appreciate being hooked up with someone locally. It’s more fun to be engrained in the local culture and the White Mountain Milers running community is awesome and supportive. The past two years I’ve had the good fortune of staying with Christie and Richie Girrourd and I’m fortunate because they’re great cooks (and great people too).

The course was awesome. Pretty similar to the Teva Games 10k course with technical downhills, short recovery flats on the uphill, and mud. We did 3 loops on the 4k course. I gotta say, I love going downhill fast. I knew the race was going to be a tough one with Joe Gray and the other strong climbers in it but I also was pretty confident that if I could stay at least close on the uphill that I would be able to catch them on the downhill.

As luck (or training) would have it, I was able to stay right with those guys on the climb up. I led the climb to the very top where Joe passed me for about three steps then it was all down from there. At the bottom I had a solid 10 sec lead on him but I figured he would catch me again on the way up. He got close by the last pitch but didn’t quite get there and by the bottom of the second loop he wasn’t even visible going by the finish line. That gave me some good confidence that I just needed to stay relaxed and get to the top in one piece.  I crossed the finish with a huge smile as the downhill was so much fun to run. As I came down to the finish I heard several “ah crap” comments uttered under participants breaths as I just barely lapped them. One gentleman stated that in the rematch next year he wasn’t going to let me lap him. We’ll see about that.

After a good dinner at a local North Conway establishment and a good night of sleep I was ready to tackle a big run in the White Mountains. I set off Monday morning at 8:25 for a run from Pinkham Notch at the base of Mt. Washington, the East’s highest peak, up Tuckerman Ravine Trail to the summit. I’d been on the Tuckerman trail before and knew what to expect. I made it to the summit in 1:13. A pretty reasonable time. Since I had plenty of time to make it back to the car, get home and too the airport by 4pm I thought I would try a different way down. A way that I’d wanted to try for since last year. This decision almost turned out to be one that I would regret. The Great Gulf Trail going down the right side of Mt. Washington is BRUTAL.

That’s all I can say. It’s nasty. The first mile or so is a huge rock fall face that you have to slowly pick your way down to the bottom of. Progress was very slow and I was thinking that once I got to the bottom of the gorge that it would flatten out and be a runnable trail. Well, I was in for a surprise. It was not runnable, not only that but it was full of huge boulders, wet slick boulders, roots, stream crossings, mud that was calf deep. I picked my way through trying to stay on my feet and continue to make forward as quickly as possible. I started to get a bit nervous that I wasn’t going to make it to the airport on time. It was taking so long to get anywhere. Finally, it started to ease up a bit and I was able to run a bit with some considerable effort from my entire body.  I made it back to the car at 3hr 17min. It took me 2hr and 5min to go down what I came up in 1:13. I was spent. Tired to the core, every muscle in my body. It took my entire body to keep going and to keep me upright on that trail. It was amazing. One of the best adventure runs I’ve had in a long time. These types of runs are what make running so amazing to me. I was able to cross through terrain in 3hrs that would take most people days to complete. The things I get to see through running that I normally wouldn’t are what make me really and truly enjoy what I do. I don’t think I’d recommend this run to anyone in their right mind, but if you’re up for an adventure then go for it. It was quite the experience.  Testing out the new Mtn Hardwear gear made it even better. The running vest moved with my body like it wasn’t even there. I was packing about 20-30oz of water in a bladder, a jacket, phone, and some food and it never became annoying or a burden. I was wearing the new Mtn Hardwear Way2Cool Tee and it performed beautifully. A bit sticky as I was sweating but kept me cool and dried quickly. The Montrail Rogue Flys never missed a beat and were great all day. Good traction on dry rock, not so good on wet but I don’t thing anything would be, and no noticeable wear on the upper even with some burly rock abrasions. And my trusty Mtn Hardwear Trucker hat was awesome as usual.

I made it back to town just a bit late, packed up, said my goodbyes to our hosts, and me and Mario were on our way to the airport. Another successful week in the bag.