Clam Beach run

Saturday we all piled into the car early, drove through the dark while the kids slept to Trinidad California.

Zachary, Esther and I then waited in the cold until we ran in the rain.  I wore a garbage bag as a coat for the first 2 miles.  We crossed a river then ran 2 miles on the beach to the finish.

Pam got in some geocaching until the car battery died.  Joe and Todd got us jump started.  

We had ice cream near Selma and made it home after dark.

Today Gideon and I did a 3 mile tempo with the team, then Zach joined us for a run in the Britt woods, which Esther and I have decided is our favorite place to run barefoot.

Emily Olsen is Orange

Profile

• Class:Red Shirt Freshman
• Hometown:Central Point OR
• High School:Crater HS
• Height:5-5 in flats
• Speed:as fast as a leopard
• Position:crouched at starting line

CRATER HIGH SCHOOL: Competed in cross country all four years of high school under coach Justin Loftus and swim for one season under coach Michael Heckert... was a member of the track team all four years under Loftus as well... earned six total letters among the three sports... in 2007-08 was named most improved in both cross country and in track... placed at state 5A track in the 1,500-meters and 3,000-meters.

PERSONAL: Majoring in biology... parents are Neil and Pamela... father is a family practitioner and Pamela is a full-time mother... siblings include Esther (16), Karna, Zachary (13), Erik (9) and Gideon (6)... father competed in cross country and track at OSU from 1985-1986... mother graduated from Oregon State... hobbies include cooking, playing piano, astronomy, protist taxonomy and CAR... former prep teammates currently competing at Division-I schools: Isaac Stoutenburgh (Oregon) and Jake Keyser (Colorado)... former prep teammates at NAIA D-II schools because Boise State's financial aid package wasn't what they promised:  Zach Elliot...  favorite athletes are Eric Liddell and Neil Olsen... biggest athletic thrill: outkicking Aria Hemphill for third at the 5A state championships in the 1,500-meters and downhill trail running on steeplechase or Three Sisters Wilderness in the dark... chose OSU because of the impressive science department and housing accommodations.  Fell in love with the social life there.
 
source:  http://www.osubeavers.com/ accessed 9/22/09, minor modifications by nmo

Nunzilla attacks Hood to Coast

Providence hospital put together 12 people crazy enough to endure 26 hours of running, sweating, car-sickness, sleep deprivation, light rain, traffic and dust. Nunzilla was our team name.

Our fearless leader and hospital CEO organized the logistics with style far beyond what I've ever seen. We had showers and places to crash both in Portland and Seaside, pizza, and more Gatorade than I could drink.

I thought that I would have trouble even limping along since it only a week after Where's Waldo. So I was very pleasantly surprised to run about as well as 2 years ago when I was fresh. My first leg was downhill and I covered almost 4 miles in 20 minutes.

We were a very disparate group, but gelled well, and had a great time cruising to a 10th place finish in our division. With over 14,000 high-spirited participants, I think of this event as a celebration of running and getting fit.

Where's Waldo remix

Some things I want to remember about Where's Waldo for next year:

• 8 wks is about long enough to recover from a prior long race.
• Mountain climbing is probably good training. 30-40 miles a week is enough to get ready if it includes 17+ mile runs on weekends and some half mile repeats.
• The pre-race meeting is at 7pm, but you can drop off bags for aid stations until 9pm.
• Its polite to recognize and remember the names of the race directors as they do a great job (Kurt Ringstad had to remind me his name. Craig Thornley is harder to forget)
• There's places to camp on the lake if your sister gets there early, but parking is limited. (As a back-up there is room to crash at the side of the ski lift parking lot)
• It's cold at the 5am start. I wore a long-sleeved shirt the first few miles but didn't need gloves.
• It's OK to start a little faster, but it may cost--this year I had equal or faster splits between each of the aid stations until the last 3
• A second water bottle isn't needed until 32 or 37 miles. I drank most of a 20 oz bottle of Gu2O between each aid station with additional water (mainly pored on my head) later on.
• It's good to carry an extra gel pack. Plain or vanilla are the easiest on a queasy stomach. I grabbed an espresso again this year at an aid station, but this time realized it before gagging. I ate one gel pack per aid station with a couple extra when I felt hunger pangs. A popsicle in the middle of the wilderness was very cool, but the purple taste was a bit much.
• A baby wipe could come in handy after Twins aid station. Imodium can be your friend.
• Most aid stations had Tums. My leg muscles don't seem to cramp as much if I have a couple of them during the race.
• Having family at aid stations is such a boost, that you can mentally block out the fact is must be super boring for them to wait for that one minute you'll be together. Emily is a great crew chief.
• There's 11,000 feet of up, and the same of down. That's an average of 350' of change per mile. If it's uphill at all, then it is steep enough to walk. But it will cost you. My split up the last mountain was the slowest of the top 12 runners.
• There's no such thing as an insurmountable lead in an ultra- I passed someone on the final section again this year.
• It's good to finish strong, if the legs allow. I'm the only one to ever race the last section in less than an hour. My first year that section was pure torture and took over twice as long.
• 1st master and 4th overall is worth $700. Ice cream at the finish-line is priceless. Thank-you Sheryl!
• Erik Skaggs is very fast
• A chunk of metal with a blue ribbon and a "title" makes me feel good about myself for longer than the soreness or prize money lasts
• "Overall" is cooler than "masters", but at least I'm not getting slower--yet.

Cascade Lakes Relay

Esther and I did a 12 person 216.6 mile relay race that wound from Diamond Lake to Bend. Esther took and extra leg totalling 23 miles over 4 legs. It took our team of Central Point area church members 30.5 hrs. We had 4 highschoolers on the team. Our team captain, John Lotts was the oldest. We slept for a couple of hours in a makeshift camp at the side of the road while the other van's runners did their nightime legs.

We got rained on, endured rough surfaces, high heat, and strong headwinds, got misdirected 1.2 miles the wrong way, bitten by misquitos, sunburnt and blistere.

Esther's hips hurt and I had gastric distress my 2nd leg. But we had a lot of fun with some great people.

States

I survived the Western States 100 mile race from Squaw Valley near lake Tahoe to Auburn Washington.

Todd Ragsdale and Esther came with in my folks' camper-van. They were my crew, meeting me at 4 places along the route with fresh socks and tapioca pudding. They were also my pacers for the last 38 miles, which actually was quite a blessing. Todd can talk the paint off the wall, which helped the miles go by.

I tried not to get worn out too fast, but still started feeling poorly just 2/5th the way into the race. Before this I would have thought 13:45 per mile was pretty lame, but there was a lot of uphill (18,000') and I didn't/couldn't go fast on the downhill (23,000').

Bev Abbs and a bunch of other people passed me. But on the other hand, a bunch of really good runners didn't finish. I was 46th of the 238 finishers and 400 starters. I don't know if or when I'd do this race again. I've been going easy on the running since then, but I'm looking at doing Where's Waldo 100k on Aug 22nd.

Graniteman

Esther and I did a races at Applegate lake called Graniteman. She ran 11 miles around Collins mountain and I did 2 laps around the lake.

Esther was 3rd, inspite of starting 30 minutes late. Thanks to chip timing, it didn't matter. She was by herself for a time, then caught a few people. She and I both got nice granite plaques.

Bev and Alan Abbs came up from Redding. Bev was voted the #2 female ultrarunner in the US in 2007.

One of my claims to fame is that she has yet to beat me. So while we were both doing this

as training runs for the long run we're planning in 3 weeks, I didn't want to change that so I had to work a little harder than I wanted, but it all went fine. There were only 8 people in my race.

My knee did OK. I've got some instep pain now that is lingering. It stinks to get older. I slipped on the one short muddy spot in the whole race. I think I had my shirt on inside-out the entire 5 hour race and didn't even notice.