Illinois Marathon 4/28/13 - Photos from Joe

Congratulations to Amber Spring for her first time marathon and to Missey Andrews for a personal best.  Well done is better than well said.

Full resolution images here.  More from the course soon.

-Larry

thunderstruck 10 mi - March 9, 2013 9 am

In the spirit of Wildcat, we decided to have an even less organized, show up, shut up and run non-event event in the spring.

No registration, no clocks, no T-shirts, no cost.  Ain't dat simple?  Just run around in the woods.

March 9 2013, 9 am at the Loud Thunder Forest Preserve, western Rock Island County.  Google up Illinois City or Andalusia, Illinois for nearest booming metropolises.

Here is a link to the event flier.  Two five mile loops along Andalusia Slough, a backwater of the Mississippi.  A few climbs up and down the bluff.

Some basic food and drinks at the start and finish, but feel free to bring something you like to share.
We will have water at the start and at the 2.5 mile turnaround.  We plan on using the Hauberg Trail, north of the road.  Trailhead and parking at the top of the hill on Loud Thunder Road, west of Lake George.  Google map here.

Questions?  Email lsandhaas@hotmail.com.

-Larry

Wildcat 50k photos - on the run

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Mark Stegmaier Photos - Wildcat 50k

Thanks Mark!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Wildcat 50k Results - Draft

Success in our third year follows, despite a little rain in the afternoon.  Around 160 runners signed our event waiver. Draft Results here.

I agree to run around in the woods and have fun.  I might trip and fall and get hurt.  Suck it up, Buttercup. I will hold harmless the Wildcat 50k, The Friends of Melpine School, etc., etc., yaddah, yaddah.  Go forth and stay upright and healthy. Amen.

No lawyers were harmed in the production of that bit of prose.  We raised around $2500 in nickels, dimes, checks and small children to benefit the park.  In a few years, a small playground is planned.  Ranger Jim declines the offer to name it for him, but has said he won't retire until it is done.

Day turned out better than hoped.  100% chance of rain stayed away until about noon.  Only the final loops were in the steady drizzle, while morning sun peaked in and out.  Temps dropped steadily as the cold front came through, from the 50's to the 20's by evening.

Around 39 finishers of 50k this year, dampened somewhat by the forecast.  Overall, participation was up, and the event continues to grow.

Take a look see at the event results, and tell me about any corrections, changes or additions.  Final results in a few weeks, as well as a write up for UltraRunning.

Regards-

Larry

Wildcat 50k updates - October 28, 2012

A few thoughts from two weeks out from Wildcat...

• No changes to the course. We will use the same layout from our last two years. Improvements to trail bridges and additional gravel has been placed by the stairs at various places in the park.
• Beth Dessner and Eastern Iowa Physical Therapy have provided finishers skull caps for the top twenty 50k runners. Caps are gray, with Wildcat logo, and will be for sale at start/finish line. Proceeds benefit Wildcat Den and the Friends of Melpine School (the small building near the mill...our charity sponsor.)

• Bark Chiropractic of Muscatine has generously offered to provide muscle work for tired runners.  Look for Brad Bark's tent near the start and finish line.
• Warrior Cross Fit Muscatine will have their pull up challenge bar at the start/finish are, and are providing wrist bands for all participants.  Thanks to Sarah and Jacob Garvin!
• We are still asking for food donations this year, as well as whatever donation you think Wildcat is worth to you. Looking towards some healthier food choices, to include sandwiches from Elly's Coffee and Tea.  
• Menu will also include water/gatorade for hydration, plus fruit, nuts, potatoes, vegetarian chili and beef chili as well as hot home made tomato soup.  Hot apple cider...and hard cider may make an appearance too.

Still looking for a few volunteers for the afternoon aid station and cleanup shifts, but ours is a simple event, and we don't need vast numbers.  My home brewing has been going full speed this year, so you can expect hard cider, mead, rhubarb wine, ales and a variety of other grown up beverages for optional consumption by finishers.

Hope to see you all there. 

Larry 

Wildcat 50k update

A repost of something I put on Facebook event page recently.

We're about 2 months out from Wildcat. A few updates.

Wildcat has received some generous support from friends in fitness I believe in.
I am going to call them out one by one in this post and others to follow shortly.

Beth Dessner at Eastern Iowa Physical Therapy helped me with a treadmill analysis of my gait and stride this past winter, and I see her regularly at Warrior Crossfit Muscatine. Beth and her husband Dave ran Wildcat in 2011, and through their support, we can provide some basic aid station food and fluid for runners in 2012. Thanks Beth!

We are still a donation supported, no registration event. You are welcome to bring food to share and a donation to support the park. Rest assured, we will have adequate food and hydration for our runners no matter what. The day of event food donations help us expand our supplies to meet race day demand. I can guess how many are coming, but honestly have no idea until race day.

Recent races have got me thinking about food and nutrition at ultras and road races. It's often crappy. During your training, do you reach for starchy sugar cookies for fuel? Maybe not.

So....I was hoping to steer the food Wildcat provides towards some better choices. Not wanting to be the food Nazi, but conversations in the woods with Co-Race Director Danelle Much...nutrition educator for Iowa State Extension... suggest we can do better.

Was thinking of spending our very small but adequate food and fuel budget at local, small businesses in Muscatine and focusing on freshly made instead of pre-packaged. Will also be relying on the kitchens and creativity of friends.

What type of food would you like to see at Wildcat? Feel free to leave comments. Here are some of my ideas.

- Fresh fruits - Bananas, apples, oranges
- Salted potatoes - both white potatoes and sweet potatoes
- Hot soup - working on some home canned tomato soup for this
- Granola
- Fruit breads or muffins
- Sunflower, pumpkin seeds and nuts

Still brewing up our special finishers awards as I type this. Stay tuned for that.

-Larry

congratulations craig phillips - full distance tri finisher

One of the young engineers I work with just finished his first full distance triathlon 140.6 miles in 11 hrs 14 minutes. Grand Rapids, Michigan Titanium.

Awesomeness.

Here's a shot from the north rim of the Grand Canyon back in April 2012.  A training double crossing.

Congratulations, Craig. You've come a long way.

-Larry

my slow motion demise - the (many) negatives of aerobic training

Chatting with a friend who runs a small gym today, making a joke about "what I do away from here killing me slowly." He seemed puzzled by the remark, so I googled "endurance inflammation cortisol" and bingo....the first hit below.  Coming from the endurance side, and dabbling in the strength side, finding the notion of my ongoing slow motion demise intriguing. Will also need to watch out for the trend of " intense aerobic exercise in animals decreases reproductive organ size and function."

Posted for interest, because I have friends in both strength and endurance camps, while I tightrope between, the impression of the casual observer is of a strength person who just doesn't understand those skinny little endurance types.  Witness....

"These data suggest that repeated physical stress of intensive training and competitive races among endurance athletes is associated with elevated cortisol exposure over prolonged periods of time.”

To which I might add...well, the stressing and re-stressing of the extreme endurance person....is kinda the whole point of the endeavor.  Adaptation of training towards a specific goal...to go farther, faster. Rather in the same vein of a strength person getting stronger.  Specificity of training really works!

As to whether I am killing myself slowly, I find solace in my old friend....the Joker...from the Batman movie of 1989...."Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?" And I ask....friend in strength...."Have you ever seen the light of a second dawn on your feet, from the top of a mountain sliding down a re-frozen snowfield?"  There's a certain beauty in that, a thrill that makes me not regret having a couple fewer years in a nursing home, soiling myself in an adult diaper.

I might well be pilloried by friends in the strength community, who will tell me the article is by a well respected authority.  I know little, except that the right side bar of the page is selling a product called "Lean Legs 2.0" which promises to "smooth and tighten skin as it burns fat."

The charlatans abound in the fitness (fitless?) industry.  A study of Zumba participants (19 total!) increasing their VO2 max over a control group.  The statistics and methodology would earn them high marks in any 5th or 6th grade science fair I have judged.

My pesky day job, which supports occasional forays into oxygen deprived bliss, is a bit harsher on the reality based side.  Hard science, whether or not it fits your world view, is a bit easier to prove and quite a bit more predictable than the softer type.  It also hardens me to whatever your kookie belief systems are, as long as you pay your bills. Failing that, you're not just a wacko, but a deadbeat wacko. I am consultant, which is the world's second oldest profession.

Don't believe in climate change?  Fine, I will build you a flood wall or not.  I advise you to head to higher ground when the rain falls and the wind blows if you chose not.  Mother nature....she's a bitch.

Be mighty today.

Bloomington Illinois Half Marathon

There will be an inaugural half marathon and 10k on Saturday, September 29, 2012 in Bloomington to benefit local nonprofits in McClean County.  My sister Kari is on the board of the Ecology Action Center, the Bloomington/Normal environmental education center. The Ecology Action Center promotes recycling and waste reduction, clean water and sustainable living.

Here's a link to the race information page.  The race is a week after Quad Cities Marathon, and three weeks ahead of Des Moines Marathon.  Could be a good tune up race for later fall marathons, when the weather will have cooled down.

Race course promises to be flat, and paved on pedestrian trail and city streets of Bloomington.  I'm planning to give it a run.

-Larry

Strength of Youth - The Story of a Marathon Race

"The Kid had risen upon his toes and lifted himself into the terrible toiling of the final sprint. Already he led by half a dozen strides. The sight of that thirty-seven ahead maddened to fury the spirit of the older man and the words of the trainer stung his naked soul.  Goaded through eye and ear he strove to respond by additional speed. There was a certain grim, virile satisfaction in the mortification of the flesh by the master effort of closing toil.  It was as if the soul stood forth and cried: "This is what I am great enough to make the body do - and that against its every desire."

As I switch over from spring ultra to fall marathon training, it seemed the right time to get some marathon inspiration. I heard this story on the Steve Runner Phedippidations podcast a while ago. Steve has been a bit long winded of late.  A friend from Boston area who I ran a recent uber long with agrees.  But in this case, his reading of the story is actually quite good.

From the November 1907 "Short Stories" by Frank J. Odell, "The Strength of Youth - The Story of a Marathon Race."  Full text at link. From the time before the Boston Marathon was standardized at 26.2 miles.  From before Gu, and Nike and a closed course and national interest.  From a time of leather shoes, cotton shirts, blisters and guts. If you have run a race for time, you've been here.

Google Books, our benevolent robot overlords, scanned the original. Full text at link above.

-Larry

kettle 2012 - try the meditation of the trail

You start any race that about half of the entrants actually finish with a plan. Maybe a few plans.

Late in 2011, my friend Adena from Massachusetts announced she was going to attempt her first 100 mile race at Kettle Moraine. Kettle Moraine is in its 17th year, and includes 100 mi, 100 km, and 38 mi "Night time fun run" events. There is a 100 mile relay event also. 100 mile, relay and 100 km runners start at 6 am, while 38 mi night runners start at 8 pm so "they could enjoy the comaradirie of the 100 mile runners without experiencing all of the pain" according to the race website.

I met Adena at Howl at the Moon 8 hr run in Danville, Illinois in August 2008. We had never met prior. "Hi....I'm Larry. How far are you going today?" was her recall.  We were both new to ultra distance, and hit it off quite well, talking, telling stories and joking for 8 hours.  Much of life has happened since, and we are both seasoned by life and death events in family, and a lot more long, long endurance events.

I checked my calendar, and decided that the "one event per month rule" which has allowed my marriage to last for 21 years was a good fit for Kettle. We keep track of each other through social media, and I offered to run with Adena as long as she would like.  Neither of us would have crew, so it was a nice plan to keep each other company and watch for each other. Several other friends signed up for Kettle as well....Dave T., Dave C....attempting their first 100 mile runs as well.

As a special bonus, I met a friend from last year's Tahoe Rim 100.  Karyn from Chicago area and I ran in the last 30 miles or so of Tahoe, after we stumbled upon each other looking for painted course markings in the refreezing snow at 9000 ft about the northern end of the Lake.  Karyn and I chatted for a few miles at the beginning, until her pace and ours parted ways, she pulling ahead.  Karyn ran a great race, finishing near her goal time, looking strong from what other tell me.

Kettle is a well run, all volunteer affair. Race directors Jason Dorgan and Tim "Timo" Yanacheck are up for days straight during the event, staffing the aid stations, monitoring runners, marking and cleaning up the course and aid station sites. If you want a sense of the events, consider volunteering first.  Aid stations are staffed by people who are up all night, and who don't get paid. Volunteers help keep the spirit of these events alive, without the crass commercialism of corporate sponsored events.

From a 2006 UltraRunning article on Kettle... “The Ice Age Trail rolls and turns and twists through southeastern Wisconsin, in places a bit rocky and rooty and nasty, in places the most beautiful pine-needle-covered trail you could ever hope for; in places a steady progression of short, sharp ups and downs, in places very gently rolling. There are no deep canyons, no mountain passes, no thin air, no claim to be the toughest 100-miler. But 100 miles is still 100 miles. You still have to deal with Mother Nature, with the night, with blisters and chafing and sore muscles, with trying to keep eating and drinking and running. These factors are always there.”

There is some challenging single track sections, up and down rock and root strewn, but well defined paths.  The nordic ski trail sections of the course seem challenging at the start and mid-point, and downright painful near the end with some short, but steep hills. Views of restored prairie dominate the first loops, out in the sun on the day we passed, but with healthy wind blowing to cool things down a bit.

Weather was perfect. Temps in the 50's to start, topping out in the 70's, with sun to partly cloudy skies, low humidity.  Ran in T-shirt, arm sleeves and leg sleeves mostly, switching to a long sleeve shirt in the night.  Head covering essential, along with bug spray and sunscreen....thoughtfully provided at every aid station.

Adena let me lead most of the time, so I set a pace for an agreed finish time in the 24-25 hour range, with a fall back plan of a simple finish in under 30 hours.  That seemed do-able while we were planning.  Really did not start thinking about course and pace until the weekend before, when it dawned on me....yes, I was indeed running 100 miles next weekend and better start thinking about it.

A nice rule of thumb for finish times at Kettle, endorsed by many veterans....take your 50 mile...especially Ice Age 50 run on nearby course....and multiply by 2.5 to get projected Kettle 100 finish time. Both Adena and I had finished 50 miles in 10 hrs or less, so the goal seemed reasonable.

Things went well for the first 50 miles or so. Most folks in the 24-30 hour 100 mile finish range will run slower in the second 50 mile vs the first 50 mile. The sub-24 hour finishers may run another type race, with negative splits perhaps.  Most of us will start breaking down in the later hours.  Haven't yet met a sub-elite person who ran negative splits for 100 mile events.

There was a fair amount of slowing in the 50-75 mile range.  Darkness came, as did more challenging single track with smooth stones.  Adena started having some foot pain, and eventually needed to drop at mile 77.  We got quiet in those last miles running together.  She was obviously in a lot of discomfort , and the pace dropped to the point where it didn't look like we were going to finish ahead of cutoff.  Got Adena to a staffed aid station around 3:30 am.  We gave each other a hug and I went on for the finish goal.

For the next 7 hours, I was inside my own head, walking the hills, running the downhills and the flat segments through prairie.  Dawn near mile 80 something was a beautiful thing, but I still had to reach the turn around for the second course loop at mile 82.  Managed to run up until the final 3-4 miles.  The Nordic ski trails took their toll, slowing my pace to a walk in the high 90 mile range.  Ran the last mile in at a blistering 15 min pace, fatigue taking its toll and a welcome site of Susan C. greeted me at finish.

I jokingly stole a quote from Super Dave J when we saw all the people at this race who called me out by name..."these are my people."  I got the opportunity to tell Adena..."See, I wasn't making this all up."  Got called out by folks we know from Clinton Lake, Kennekuk, Potowatami, McNabb, Howl....all local midwest ultras.  Met friends who crewed Bonnie Busch across Badwater 135 miles of Death Valley. Met folks that I have met in the mountains around Tahoe, and at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  These are indeed my people. Ultra running is still a small community. Much more in my comfort zone than the nameless hordes of big city pavement races.  On the trail, in the wild, that's where the love is.

“Try the meditation of the trail, just walk along looking at the trail at your feet and don’t look about and just fall into a trance as the ground zips by. Trails are like that: you’re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you’re struggling in a hot broiling sun of hell in dust and nettles and poison oak… just like life. " - Jack Kerouac