Pine 2 Palm

Pam dropped me off in the little town of Williams on a Saturday before sunlight.  22 1/2 hrs later she picked me up in Ashland long after dark.

In between, I traveled 103 miles on trails, dirt roads, and a little pavement while climbing and descending a total of 20,000'.  I felt great at the start, and didn't give up the lead until 10 miles.  That was on the first of 3 long, remote, beautiful trails over 7,000' mountains that I had never before traveled.  I made good time on a flat section of dirt road, averaging about 7:20 pace until I got back on trails and hills.  The light rain and cool temperature was fine at low elevations while I was moving well.  Later, when I wasn't moving so well and the wind was driving rain sideways it wasn't so fun.  I borrowed a jacket from a friend, fleece pants from a stranger, a garbage bag from an aid station, and a hat and gloves that I had sent ahead in a drop-bag.

About mile 60, I started having a deep ache in my legs with each step.  I had experienced this once before at my first Where's Waldo.  It was torturous, but self induced, so I asked myself why I was doing it.  I didn't have a good answer.  But I was at least going to get to the next aid station, at mile 66.  I spent 30 minutes there in a chair sipping chicken-noodle soup by the heater.  I decided I was going to at least go to the top of the peak since it was only another 1/2 mile.  I felt better once I left, so I kept going.  I knew my friend, David Jordan, was waiting for me at mile 83.  The leg pain didn't come back until mile 81.  I spent another 1/2 hour in a chair and again had relief.  We walked about 7 miles to the top of the last peak, then jogged the steep down-hill, ran the dirt road, and limped in to the finish.  I hadn't much cared earlier when they were passing me, but I worked hard to pass people back, and caught everyone that had passed me after mile 60 to finish 4th.

This was my 2nd 100 mile finish.  100 milers cause a high level of physical and mental stress.  If I ever do another, I need to train longer miles for it ahead of time.  Which is another challenge- they take a huge amount of preparation.

My legs were very sore for 3 days.  I was able to do 800m repeats with Esther on the 4th day, but then a couple of spots on my feet really hurt.  I went for a bike ride Saturday, but haven't run again.  Yet.

Next on the schedule is the Ashland loop trail marathon, but it's the same day as state xc.

Hood 2 Coast

Once a year 12,000 crazy people decorate their cars with double andantes, and run through the night from the parking lot at Timberline to the beach, largely on back roads.  For a fee of $100+ each, the deal includes smelly bodies and car sickness in dusty stop-and-go traffic after 2 1/2 hrs of sleep in a field to get to a long port-a-potty line before dashing down the road again.  It's a special kind of hurry-up and wait.

team 821, van 2, "before"

In my defense, I view it as a celebration of running, and is worthwhile if you have a fun team.

This year I got on a team with 3 cardiologist, several of their staff and family, and a couple of friends that I ran with last year.  One of the guys, Ken, was former Air Force, served a mission to Korea, and works with the young men's organization in the other stake, so I really enjoyed talking with him.

Mike was on a team named ROUS (Runners of Unusual Stamina).  They started before us, but I had hopes initially that our team would catch his and we would see each other.  24 legs into the race, in a field off a small country road miles from civilization, we pulled in to take our last long break.  2 vans down I noticed the ROUS rig, surrounded by sleeping people but I didn't recognize any of their faces as they were each covered to shade from the light.  I found an empty patch of grass, and caught a little sleep, until the guy orthogonal to me straightened his legs and kicked me in the head.  Sure enough, it was my favorite Andrus brother-in-law.  His team was doing well, and we never did catch them, but it was great to see him if only for a moment.  At that same transition, I was also greeted by friends Ammon and Ann Ebert from Medford. 

in a hurry.  At least, I was.

A nice part of being on a slow team is that the only pressure is what you put on yourself.

I had leg 8, which starts and ends with fairly flat 4+ mile legs, and has a middle leg that climbs almost 1000' total over 5+ miles.  I beat my time estimates, especially on the climb.  On my legs, I averaged 5:28/mile, 6:20/mile, and 5:41/mile. I still felt pretty good, so I joined a team mate for the 7 mile next-to-last leg.

our team leader

We enjoyed good weather this year, and made it back to Forest Grove before dark to rendezvous with my wife.  I jumped out of the team van at a stop light to hop into our Honda.  She did a little geocaching on our way back to my sister-in-law Tracy's birthday party then arrived at the posh motel-Lake in McMinnville.  It was after 10pm, and Esther hadn't run yet.  She was dragging Zachary out with her, and not wanting to miss out on the fun, I donned my shoes yet again for 1 more leg.  It's an admittedly strange way to have fun.

Mac Forest 50k late report

It was a beautiful morning for a run May 8th in the hills North of Corvallis. I actually paid attention (briefly and early on in the race) to birds singing in the trees, wildflowers, great views, and thick forest. I shed my long-sleeve shirt after the first 30 min. There was some mud in the middle of the run, but not much. I wore light-weight Sacony Fastwich, which gave me adequate traction which was great, but they were a little thin as I felt the gravel through them later on. Maybe next year we'll get lucky and have more bone chilling drizzle and slop like a few years ago.

A bunch went out fast. I think I was in 13th at the top of the first big climb 30 minutes into the run. On part of the descent towards Soap Creek my GPS watch showed under 5:20 pace at one point, but Brian Morrison was still pulling away!

Into the Starker property maze of trails, and on the downwards section of extendo there was plenty of company from the early starters. For the next 10 miles I picked off people as I could, while trying not to fry muslce fibers.

Towards the end of the maze I caught Michael Lynes, who admitted he would have felt fresher if he hadn't just won the Tacoma Marathon the week before. I pulled up even with David Larsen on the long uphill to Dimple Hill and we passed the leader (who was brave but we could tell he was new to ultrarunning because he wasn't carying a water bottle). At the Dimple hill aid station I changed into the green Rouge Valley Runners singlet, to look fresh (and harder to spot in the woods).

David must have blazed through that aid station, as I had to bomber down the hill to catch and pass him. I got a minute or so on him by Chip Ross, but started having muscle cramps - first just when jumping a stream, later in spurts with every step.

So I was pretty nervous heading up the horse trail. That is where a couple of friends passed me last year. I was able to keep it under red-line, and finally hit the gravel road at the top. I came upon a cyclist, who jokingly said "go runner!" I didn't realize until was right up to him that it was Ken!  I had cryptically indicated to him that I might be in town.  He was out on a ride, bumped into extra traffic, figured out what was going on, and rode up the gravel road on his road bike high above the Lewisberg saddle to cheer me on.

I adjusted my stride to avoid having cramping with each step.  Later I got a cramp in my arm.  Started me to thinking what other muscles were beating hard that might cause trouble if they cramped...

That last long uphill doesn't look bad on paper, but it drags on forever. The down-hill was a relief in that it is a different kind of pain. Then it was just a matter of holding on until I heard the sound of my daughters 1/4 mile from the finish line.

I've now placed 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 6th and 1st at this race. I have loved Chip Ross and dimple hill since running them from my back door in high school 25+ years ago.  4:13:51 was the slowest winning time in a few years, but 16 min faster than I did last year.

It was the first time in several attempts that my parents timed it right to be at the finish line at the same time as I was, which was great.

The following days I just had the standard can-only-go-down-stairs-one-at-a-time soreness. No lasting cramp damage.

"How many is that again?"

25 laps, 6.2 miles, just over 38 minutes of pain. Bring a book if you want to come watch because it's the 10k.








If you thought you knew what pain was before, think again, it just got redefined.

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.