2sparrows

2010 – The Seeds are Planted.. Last year, I was able to watch my Dad and sister run the Boston Marathon. I covered about 15 miles of it on foot, and the seeds were planted. I last ran a road marathon in 1993 — the Marine Corps Marathon. Since then, I’d somewhat lost interest in roads, and, in fact, only in the past 6 or 8 months have I run any road races — a couple of local 5k’s.

But, Boston is special. I knew it then, just watching Dad and Kim run, and I told them if they were going to do it in 2011, I’d love to run it as well.

2011 – The lead in… One of the (many) reasons Boston is special is because you have to qualify. For me, a 40 year old male, that means a 3:20, or a 7:38/mile pace. I’m close, but certainly not there (yet!). This spring I’d run about 6 or 7 miles at that pace. Adding 20 more would certainly be tough! Other ways “in” are by running for charity, and this year my friend and co-worker Greg raised ~ $8000 for the Children’s Hospital! Way to go Greg! And then there is another way in — comp’d spots. Last year my friend Jeff got in via Addidas — then again, he was able to run 2:45.

I was able to run via a “comp’d” spot (thanks Dad!), though I’m no 2:45 runner! And the comp’d spot didn’t become official until just a few weeks before the race date. I have to admit, after my 40 mile run at Uhwarrie in February of this year, I was ready for a break from running. And with the Boston registration not being fully confirmed until just prior to the race, I had lost motivation and my training really suffered. Additionally, I traveled a lot the prior three weeks before Boston. Here’s a graph of my running from Daily Mile:

Looking back, I had run an average of 15 miles per week the 10 weeks after Uhwarrie leading up to Boston, and just 6 miles per week the last 3 weeks.

Predictions… With the lack of training, I thought at best I could manage a 3:45, or about an 8:30/mile pace. My sister Kim, on the other hand, had run four 20 miles runs — at tempo! I knew she was running fast and strong and thought she could break 3:30.

Boston is special… Boston is special for a lot of reasons. Last year I had a fantastic weekend, spending time with Dad and Kim… Lots of good food, the marathon Expo, a trip to the American Girl store in Nattick (:-/), great conversation, etc. And following them on the run — seeing the crowds along the route in all the different places such as Wellesley College, Boston College, etc. was amazing. This year was no different and just as great. In fact, Kelly was able to fly up, so the four of us shared an amazing weekend in Boston.

All weekend, Kim and Dad said I was “sand bagging,” but I really did not think so. I would have been super happy with a 3:45. Kim even said she would not talk to me again if I beat her. But I knew she was going to be the stronger runner…

The night before… With my lack of training, and therefore lack of confidence, I thought I’d read Ryan Hall’s book, in which he described his training for last year’s race. Much of it is just his daily training log and reflections, so probably not much interest to non-runners. I read the intro and the race day entry. The Intro had Ryan’s insight into finding God’s joy in running, with the following Bible verse:

These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. — John 15:11

Ryan speaks of the Joy he found in running when he was able to just run, and drop all the goals and expectations surrounding his running. As America’s fastest marathoner, he had a lot of expectations placed on him. But when he let all of those fall aside, and run for Joy, he really found his groove.

Race Day I slept well, only waking up just once during the night and my alarm actually woke me — normally I wake several times and always just before the alarm! I had a quick breakfast of eggs and the like at the hotel restaurant, and then we walked to loading point where the many many buses were waiting. Here’s a shot of the people waiting in line, and Dad, Kim, and me waiting as well.

We rode the buses to the start in Hopkinton, which takes about an an hour. TheAthlete’sVillage was full and bustling, but not for long. We were in the 3rd wave, which started at 10:40, so the village cleared out pretty quickly as the other two waves headed to the start. Just before we left the village, I ate a chocolate glazed donut Dad had bought from Dunkin Donuts that morning — gluten problem or no, I wanted one of my favorite treats and figured the sugar would give me a good rush!

The Start…

It was finally our time to go, so we first had to find our bus to put our drop bags in. Dad and I had very high numbers, and our bus was outside the village which took a while to find. I dropped my warm clothes and just kept my arm warmers and a black garbage bag on to stay warm and keep the wind off. It took Kim a while to find us after she had dropped her things, and then we started making our way to the start.

Wow, it was crowded! In fact, the 2nd wave had not even made it past the start, so those of us in the 3rd wave were kind of stuck for a while. Eventually we made it towards the starting line, and then headed towards our corrals. Dad was in corral 9, and I was supposed to be there as well — neither of us had marathon times submitted on our applications. Kim was in corral 1 as she had run a 3:49 last year. I wanted to sneak in there with her, so we made our way in that direction.

Due to the delay with wave 2, we had to jump out of the crowd and run on the grass and side walk towards the front. We arrived at the gate to corral 1 and there was a large crowd trying to get in. The “gate guards” were actually checking the corral numbers on the bibs! I hoped to sneak in with the garbage bag covering my number, but I wasn’t so sure it would work now. But then the announcer stated “one minute to start,” and the gate keeper of corral 2 dropped the rope, and all of those runners moved forward, and the gatekeepers at corral 1 were over run, so I was able to sneak in.

As we got into the corral and moved forward, the gun sounded and the race was off! I lost Kim in the 1st few seconds… She took off, and I had a head phone malfunction. As I was trying to get that adjusted, I lost her, and had no idea where she was!

The 1st few miles The race starts downhill for petty much the 1st 5 miles. I wanted to get some separation so the crowd wouldn’t be too bad, so I had a nice little tempo going. Kim was gone, but I kept looking for a pink shirt in front of me, and run for it, hoping to find her. I looked at my Garmin and saw 7:40 pace — oh no, too fast! I told my self to slow down…. But every time I looked at my pace (and I tried not to look too often) it was at 7:40…

Slow down….. 7:40. run run run 7:40

Slow down…. run run run 7:40

It felt easy and smooth.

Slow down. run run run 7:40

Slow down. run run run 7:40.

Ok, you get the idea.

After about 5 or 6 miles, sometimes high – fiving all the kids on the sides of the road, sometimes just running with ease, I thought I should just go with it. 7:40? That’s just about my BQ pace. Yeah, it’s almost a minute faster per mile than I thought I would run, but let’s just hold it as long as I can, and see how it goes. It felt good. It felt right. I was running with Joy, and it was awesome. Boston is special! The crowds were awesome. And it felt good. I figured it would catch up to me at some point, but who knew when, so why not just go with it?

Mid-way Kelly said she wanted to see Wellesley, about mile 13, so we told her to hang out on the left side of the run. The right side would be full of the “Scream Tunnel” girls giving out kisses and creating all kinds of havoc.

So around mile 12.5 I started looking for Kelly, enjoying the atmosphere all along. I saw her long before she saw me. In fact, I was jumping up and down and waving my arms, but she didn’t see me until I was right in front of her. I was there a little earlier than expected.

So she didn’t get any pictures of me running up towards her, but I’ll have the memory in my mind forever.  I gave her a big hug and kiss and said I was going way too fast, but I felt good. She said “where’s Kim?” and that was really the 1st time I thought I might be in front of my sister… I knew I was running fast — much faster than I thought I could (sandbagging?) but Kim had taken off at the start and I had not seen her since — even though I was diligently looking. But if Kelly had not seen her??

Here’s the photo Kelly took of me as I turned back to her…

Here’s one of the photos of Kim that Kelly was able to take – a minute or two after I had passed – I was in front!  (I still wouldn’t be sure of this for quite some time…)

15 – 21…. At mile 15, I was still amazed I was holding something like 7:41 – 42 pace. How long would it last? I hit all the hills in this section, the three famous hills culminating with Heartbreak Hill, still feeling good. I came out of the hills at about a 7:46 pace. Could I get any of the lost time back? I wasn’t sure, but I tried to open it up on the down hills. But here I was finally starting to feel the early pace…  And starting to slow.

Around mile 19 or so, I heard someone yell “SEAN!” Wow, my name, out here, in the middle of a million plus spectators. I didn’t have a name tag on — BTW, if you ever run Boston or any big marathon, put a name tag on! Everyone yells out for you. I turned back and saw my friend and co-worker Todd. He had spotted me in all the sea of runners!  That “game face/mug shot” photo on Facebook the night before worked!  Someone knew what to look for!  That gave me a lift, but I was definitely starting to hurt.

Somewhere around mile 8 to 10, the crowd of runners had became thick. We had caught the 2nd wave…. And it kept getting thicker and thicker… Miles 18+ was wall to wall runners and I was having to run around them quite often.  Now the water stations become much harder to navigate — in fact, towards the end, some runners were stopping right in front of me!  Due to all the maneuvering, my Garmin shows I ran about a 1/2 mile further than the 26.2 of a marathon. :-/

The Finish

Miles 21 through the end were a a bit of struggle for me. The early pace had certainly caught up to me, but I did not totally fall apart. I passed many runners that had succumbed to walking. I never quite reached that point, but I did slow down.

At this point, let me put in the pace charts for Kim and me. Kim’s husband Paul, and Dad’s wife Nadia, were watching our splits “live” — Paul in Denmark and Nadia in SC. They watched me slowly build a 2 minute lead on Kim, but then watched her cut it down, closer and closer and closer. Would she catch me? Paul said it was a better than watching a football game…

Well, that gives away the finish…. With about a mile left, I heard a voice next to me: “Do you want to finish together?” Well, there Kim was after all those miles… I said “I don’t think I can,” and she responded “Yeah, I think I’m going to throw up.” I said I would try to stay with her.

So I tried, and maybe did for a minute or two. But it was crowded, she was flying, and I did not want to finish Boston throwing up at the finish! I let her go a little — or I should really say I couldn’t hang with her pace, but when we made that last turn where you can finally see the finish –a good half mile to go, I thought I’d give it one more go. A nice little (slight) down hill, open up, and let’s see what happens.

I would have loved to have kept up and cross the finish line together. But I couldn’t do it — she was too strong, I was too far gone, and she finished about 20 seconds in front of me. But she also broke 3:30, (3:28) which is where I thought she would be, and I finished just behind her.

I’m not complaining — 3:28 was 17 minutes faster than where I thought I would be. And granted it was a great day for running with gorgeous weather (though a touch warm for those of us in the last wave) with a nice tail wind, but I had one of those special days. I had found Joy in running. At least the 1st 18 -20 miles or so.

Kim and I made it through the finish chute grabbing all the goodies — food, water, etc., and eventually to the buses with our drop bags. I was able to get my bag, which had my phone, and I called Kelly to see where she was so we could meet. I also saw texts from my Dad saying:

“Absolute frigging amazing… I knew you were sandbagging!”

“I am so proud of you. You are a real man and brother allowing Kim to beat you!”

Let me just say right now — it was not me “allowing” Kim to beat me — she was definitely the stronger runner!

It was at this point that I realized Dad had dropped out early… His travel schedule had limited his ability to run, and when he finally did attempt a long run a few weeks prior the race, he strained his calf, so he had not run since then. A few miles in to Boston, his calf flared up, so he took the train back to Boston.

Kim and I eventually met up with Kelly:

Recap

Let me just say again that Boston is special. (Have I said that already?? )

I am not a “roadie,” but Boston was worth it. I had lost interest a bit, but I am so glad I ran. And I would do it again in a heart beat. I have a life long running goal of running a BQ, which for me is a 3:20. I was somewhat close to that through 20 miles, and while I dropped off a bit in the end and missed it by 8 minutes, I do think it would be possible for me with the right training and the right race. While my shorter term running goals of sub 20:00 on a road 5k and a 100 mile trail run may take precedence, Boston will always be calling. I’m not sure what order I’ll achieve my goals, but I now have the confidence that a BQ will fall.

(Though note the 3:20 I need this year drops to a 3:15 next year… Until I turn 45 and it goes back to 3:20! 3:20 seems much more doable than 3:15. :-/)

Here’s my Garmin data:

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 39 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 401 posts. There were 91 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 16mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 19th with 164 views. The most popular post that day was Boston Marathon Liveblog.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were hundredpushups.com, dailymile.com, facebook.com, 2sparrows.org, and birthdayshoes.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for poi si torno all eterna fontana, love song lyrics, springer mountain, into the wild book quotes, and poi si tornò all’eterna fontana.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Boston Marathon Liveblog April 2010

Into the Wild. Jon Krakauer. May 2008
6 comments

Family Happiness and Other Stories. Leo Tolstoy. June 2008

A Grief Observed. C.S. Lewis. October 2006

Grandfather Mountain Hike August 2008
8 comments

Read about it here:

Part I

Part II

Part III

• “The whole of nature,” wrote the English author William Ralph Inge, “is a conjugation of the verb to eat, in the active and passive.”

Another food/diet book read this year, but this one is different.  It doesn’t really espouse a typically type of diet as Plank’s “Real Food” (go back 100 years and eat that way) or Sisson’s “The Primal Blueprint” and Wolf’s “The Paleo Solution” (go back 10,000 years and eat that way).

What it does is look at the 3 ways we can get food to our table:

1. Industrial (the typical way most food is grown today — from the corn fields and cattle fields to the table)
2. Organic (and he shows the difference between industrial organic vs. small farm organic)
3. Hunter-gatherer (just what it says!)

In each scenario, he follows the food chain from the beginning all the way to his table, where he prepares and eats a meal.  Well, in the first (Industrial), he buys McDonald’s at the end!

This is really a fascinating book on many levels, and it shows how dependent we have become on corn (which is in something absurd like over 50% of all processed foods you buy at the grocery store) and is used in feeding the animals we eat, etc.  He goes into the economics of why this is the case – namely government subsidization of the corn farmers.  The organic section was also fantastic, especially the part that explores how Polyface Farm in VA is doing things — and how they are successful at it.

The problem with hunter-gatherer is that we can’t support the 6.5+ billion people in the world doing that.  A hunter-gathering tribe could only support themselves, only in the right locations, and only if they were not up against other people-groups.  Small scale organic like Polyface seems to work — so going organic and local is a good thing.  There is a question of scale — could it grow to support the world’s population?  That is tough to say.  And what about costs?  It is more expensive than the industrial chain in initial costs.  But what about the long terms costs in terms of the environment, the dependency on petroleum the industrial food chain has, and health care?  Is small scale organic healthier than industrial?  (I would say “of course!,” though some people don’t agree… Namely the large corporations behind industrial and the scientists on their payroll, and the government groups on the receiving end of their lobbying!)

I would highly recommend this book to everyone!  It is long, but well worth it.  If you want the movie version, Food Inc., is reasonably close, though not nearly as thorough.   And it is not an exact copy, or even a facsimile, of the book.  It does tell some of the same story, and Pollan was one of the main consultants.

Another food/diet book.  I had no idea when this year started I would read so many books on running and food/diet!  Oh well, it has been interesting and fun following the trail where it leads me.

Anyway, after reading The Primal Blueprint, I thought I’d read this book which just came out a month or two ago.   Based on some of the reviews, it sounded like it would have more science behind the recommendations, and I can affirm that is the case, albeit just a little more.  Overall it is very similar to Sisson’s Primal Blueprint, but there are a few differences.  PS does not get into fitness as much, though PB gets into it in much more detail in the supplemental and free PDF Primal Blueprint Fitness.

I am still not sure I agree with everything in either book with respect to diet, though I do agree with the majority of it.  Namely cut sugar, cut processed foods, and the like.  Both also promote grain/legume/dairy free as well, though PB seems to have a little more latitude towards dairy — especially fermented dairy and/or dairy from grass fed cattle.  PS says ok to butter from grass fed, but seems to not like cheeses and yogurt like PB allows.  I am still not sold on legumes being all that bad for you, and I like my cheese and yogurt, as well as milk occasionally.  None of that seems to bother me.   I am beginning to agree with grains to some extent, though I don’t know that everyone needs to cut out all grains.  I do agree that the current recommendations on building your food intake around grains is bad advice — the level of grains that are recommended seem far to high and many recent studies are pointing to the increased in grains (not just processed) ad the culprit behind the obesity and cardiovascular disease epidemic.  (I don’t want to be too reductionist and say that is our only problem… Things are much more complex than that!)   But some grains, some times, may not be too bad, unless you have a known disease/intolerance/or allergy, especially for athletes that can use more carbs…  Of all the grains, I would say wheat is probably the worst for the majority of people, due to how the body views gluten, and what that does internally.

I suppose I’ll have to read the Paleo Diet for Athletes next to see what they say!

I still don’t understand why PS states that combining fat/protein/carbs does not affect the body’s insulin response.  I.e. they state that carbs, no matter if they are eaten alone or in combinations with other (low glycemic load) foods, does not change your body’s insulin response.  I actually have a question submitted to Robb so maybe he’ll answer it on the pod cast, but if anyone understands this and has reference to the literature on it, I’d appreciate it.

Unless you are super interested in this stuff, I’d say you could just pick either PS or PB and be fine — no need to read both.  PS does have more science background, while PB lays out just what the title says — a blueprint for living, not just for diet, but for exercise, work, sleep, and play.  (PS definitely touches on sleep as well as stress as it relates to work and play.)

If you want to turn back the clock 100 years instead of 10,000, I’d highly recommend Nina Plank’s Real Food.  And the Ominvore’s Dilemma is just fascinating all around!   (I just realized I haven’t written anything on the latter yet, even though I finished it before PS, so I’ll have to do that soon!)

And this next photo shows a little of the controlled chaos of a CP — note the bottle being thrown in the air.  This is actually early in a CP before it got really chaotic.  At only one check point did everyone get out — typically a quarter to as much as half of us would stay in.  Others would jump out to use the restroom, or help with gear, or to just to stretch their legs.  Yet our longest CP was only 12 minutes.  Most of the credit has to go to the crew for this amazing feat.

Introduction

The SCAR run has long been on my mind, when I first heard about it from my old adventure racing teammates Charlie and Ernie.  At the time,  I thought they were pretty crazy, and their first attempt was downright frightful — caught in crazy weather of snow, rain, wind, etc.  You can read Charlie’s account of their second, successful attempt here. I didn’t really think I’d ever attempt it at the time, but then the idea began to grow on me.  And as my knee has been doing better and better the past year or so, and I’ve been running stronger and stronger, including an 8 hour finish at Uhwarrie (38 miles this year on a slightly shortened course), I figured now was as good a time as ever.  When my friends April and Mike said they were interested in helping out, I jumped at the chance.

I did not carry a camera as I didn’t want the added weight or the temptation to stop.  There were many amazing sites that will only live in my head.  So hopefully this post is not too boring!  I do have some photo’s at the camp site where Mike and April were waiting for me and I did take a couple with my phone at clingman’s when I got it out to send a quick update to my wife that I was still alive and well…

The Plan

I had planned to run the full SCAR, all 72 miles, all along.  But the weeks leading up to it led me to believe that was not a wise choice.  First I got some pretty bad blisters on both feet on a barefoot run — I almost never blister!  What gives?  I had some callouses growing, which are no good for distance running, and normally a mile or two on pavement acts like a pumice stone and they are gone.  For some reason, this time I blistered under the callouses and they eventually came off.  So I lost about a week there.  Then I got pretty sick, and lost a week trying to figure out what it was.  The 1st day was really bad, but then I thought I was getting better, only to plateau and then get worse.  A second week down the drain.  When it got worse and I noticed a swollen lymph node, I went to the doctor.  Turns out I had had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and subsequently a bacterial infection from the same bite!   I started antibiotics right away, but recovery was slow and I never really got back to good training.  I had lost about 6 – 8 lbs, which for me is significant since I only weigh about 145, and had trouble putting it back on. Finally, 6 days before my scheduled SCAR date, I got a two hour run in, but it was not strong.  At that point I decided for sure that 1/2 SCAR would be plenty.

Because Clingman’s Dome road and Mt Collins shelter are closed, the former due to re-paving and the latter due to bear activity, doing a 1/2 SCAR was tough logistically.  I didn’t want to meet April and Mike at US 441/Newfound Gap, as I was not sure when I would be there and did not want to  leave them waiting too long.  We settled on camp site 53, a five mile run down a side trail away from the AT.  Fork Ridge trail hits the AT at just about  the exact half way point for a full SCAR.

Here is an elevation profile and map… About 3 miles past Clingman’s dome, I would hit the Mt. Collins shelter trail head, and just past find the trail head for Fork Ridge down to the camp site.  I had spoken to a runner who had done the full SCAR just a few days prior and he said there was a sign on the AT for Fork Ridge, but my map did not show that, so I was not sure that would be the case.  But I was hopeful, and if not, Clingman’s Dome road was right next to the AT just past the Mt. Collins shelter split, so I knew I could find it from there.

And a part trail map…  Start at the bottom left at Fontana Dam, run the AT, the green dotted trail all the way to Mt. Collins at the top right, then head down Fork Ridge, the purple trail, to site 53:

Getting There

I picked up April and Mike around 10:30 a.m. and we headed west.  Any trip on I-40 near lunch time warrants a stop at My Father’s pizza in Black Mountain, one of the best pizza joints in the world, so we hit that where I ate a salad, an entire pizza, and had a last beer to wash it all down.   April wondered if I was having a “last meal.”  :-/  She also introduced me to an excellent little chocolate shop a well.  We grabbed 50′ of 3mm cord for a bear rope as I wasn’t sure if the camp site we had agreed to meet at would have cables or not, and we were on our way to Fontana Dam.  We arrived there around 5:30, walked down to the shelter which only had 2 hikers in it, and then walked around the dam, visitor center, across the dam and up the road that leads to the trail head.  We turned back, cooked dinner, chatted with the hikers, went over the meeting place one final time, and I went to sleep as soon as it was dark (about 9:30).

Wake-up Call

I of course tossed and turned.  I normally don’t sleep that well the 1st night out on a back packing trip, and the night before a big race or event is also always difficult.  So I tossed and turned.  And tossed.  And turned.  I looked at my watch many times and it seemed like time was moving in slow motion.  Finally at 4 a.m. I decided I might as well just get up and go rather than wait any longer.  I grabbed my pack, bag, and pad as quietly as I could and walked the 100 meters up to the Fontana Shelter bathroom.  There were some tent campers on top of the hill with a HUGE blazing fire.  At 4 a.m.!  Weird.   Anyway, there I put my sleeping bag and pad in their respective packs, filled my hydration bladder and two hand held bottles, and walked the 200 meters to the car.  There I quickly got a cup of coffee brewing, got dressed, and put my final gear in order.  I opted here to skip my oatmeal breakfast — there was no way I could eat anything right now, so I decided to stuff another bar in my pack and head out.  I hit the restroom at the visitor center, climbed the stairs back to the dam, and started running at 4:38 a.m.  Officially that means I ran an extra 1/2 mile or so since SCAR starts at the border of the GSMNP.  I was cool with that.  :-)

The Climb out of Fontana

After the nice flat run across the dam, the road up to the trail head was gradual and fairly easy.  But as soon as I hit the trail, I knew I was in for quite a climb. I already knew that, at least in theory, from having looked at the elevation profile (see above!).  But wow was this tough… Not much running here.  Every once in a while I’d see the lights of the dam below, getting farther and farther a way.  This was literally a 4 mile climb of 1500 feet before it plateaus just a little, and then continues climbing for 4 more miles before you finally get a down hill.  I tried to run as much as I could, but again, it was tough.

Bear Encounter

About 2 and a half hours in, my first handheld bottle of perpetuem and chia mix was just about empty.  (See below for my fueling strategy.)   I squeezed it into my mouth, and the bottle of course made a squishing empty bottle sound.  I heard a response off to my left — it sounded like a wild pig snorting in the woods maybe 20 meters a way.   A few minutes later I heard what sounded like a very large pig digging for truffles off to my left, and then I thought to myself that it was moving awfully quick.  The next thing I knew, the biggest pig I had ever seen ran across the trail maybe 15 – 20 meters in front of me.  It took all of 3 seconds to realize it was not a pig but a bear — albeit a somewhat skinny bear!  My 1st live/wild bear sighting!  :-)

About 30 minutes later, I saw my 1st hikers of the day.  They asked where I had come from and were surprised when I told them Fontana, which was a good 10 miles away since it was not even 8 a.m. yet!   About 20 minutes later I came up on Mollies Ridge shelter, which kind of has its back to the trail the way I was headed.  I could see a couple people on the far side doing normal morning things like gathering gear and brushing teeth.  It turned out it was a father and daughter (about 13 yrs old I would guess).  Apparently I had given her quite the fright as all she saw was me in my black shorts and shirt, and she thought it was a bear running at them!  I just stopped to say good morning and then kept on running.

First Water stop:  Russell Field Shelter

My 1st planned water stop was Russell Field Shelter, about 15 miles into  the run.  I got there and there were a lot of hikers eating breakfast and the like.  I’m not sure if they all had slept in the shelter the night before, but that would have been packed like sardines if that was the case!  I asked where the water was, and ran down about .2 miles to it.  It was not a piped spring, which was a bummer.  I poured the good water from my bladder into my hand held bottle, then filled the bladder and 2nd bottle.  I was not happy to see all the floaties, but figured I’d not really notice them later!  I put my water treatment pills in, filled the handhelds with my perpetuem chia mix, and headed back up to the shelter.  There I stopped for a minute or two to fix my socks and re-tie my shoes, and chatted with a couple of the hikers.  Then it was back to the trail for more running.  I had my pace down to about 17:15 per mile at this point, but by the time I left after getting water and all, it was up to 17:45!

Thunderhead

From Russell field I passed Eagle Creek trail to Spence Field shelter, Rocky Top, and on up to Thunderhead, which is quite a steep little climb.   Near Rocky top I passed a crew of trail volunteers maintaing the trail, and I thanked them all.  This section of trail was getting quite over grown, and where they had cleared was great, but beyond that, it became difficult to run as the grass was covering all the dangers of the trail like the rocks and roots and washouts.  After Thunderhead, I expected to see two SCAR runners that were supposed to have started at Davenport, the opposite end of where I had started, at midnight.  Based on what I thought their expected time would be, I should have seen them, but I did not… So I kept looking and kept looking….  My pace had slowed into the high 18′s by this point, as this was difficult trail!

Derrick Knob Shelter

I reached Derrick Knob probably around 7.5 hours.  I wanted to get more water here — hopefully for the last time.  This looked to be a really nice shelter, so I’m storing that away in case I ever backpack this section!  The water was just down the hill and was a nice piped spring — the kind I am tempted to not filter or treat.  But I had tablets so I used them.  Once I was back up the hill at the shelter I spent a quick minute re-organizing the gear before I was back at it.

26.2

I hit the marathon point just after 8 hours.  Wow!  I finished Uhwarrie this year, which was 38 miles, in just under 8 hours.  Here I was 12 miles behind that pace.  I had not felt that my sickness leading up to this race was slowing me down that much, and while it may have a little, it just proved to me how tough this trail really is.

It was here that I finally put on the ipod — one ear only as always on the trail so I can hear what is going on around me!  I had originally figured maybe a few hours of no ipod, but I never really needed or wanted it until this point. And then right at 26.2 I just felt like it was time for a little music.  :-)

About 15 minutes later, I finally saw someone that appeared to be a runner not a back packer — he had just a waist belt on with two bottles in it and one hand held.  Since this is such a remote location — we were probably a good 15 miles from the road at Newfound gap — it had to be a runner.   I asked him if he was a SCAR runner and at first he didn’t understand and just said he was running from Davenport to Fontana.  I said “yeah, that is SCAR,” and he said “oh yeah — it’s been a rough night.”  They had left at midnight as planned, but the 1st 12 miles were pretty tough, and his co-runner had gotten sick.  So he tended to him and got him to their support crew, and then continued solo.  His final words stayed with me for a while — “I’m just in survival mode now!”   At this point he had done about 45 miles to my 27 or 28…

Clingman’s Dome

From Derrick’s Knob to Clingman’s is about 10 miles and 2000 feet of climbing.  Would the ascent never end?  It was gradual, but there was so little flat ground to gain some speed!  One thing about the AT is that there are often long sections with very little mountain vistas and views, especially in the summer when the trees are full.

At Double Spring Gap I decided to stop and do some quick foot work.  I felt the blister from 5 weeks earlier on my left BOF start to come back — at this point my feet had been wet most of the day and they turn that white pruney cadaver look, and the old blister lines were splitting a touch.  So I took the time to duct tape that area and put on dry injinji socks for the rest of the run.

Once I passed Double Spring Gap shelter around mile 31, the trail opened up and there were mountains all around!  It was sad to see so many dying hemlocks, but it was nice to finally see something.  When I finally reached Clingman’s Dome, I had to run up the ramp to the watch tower, even though it was a little off trail.  With the road closed, it was deserted up there — much different than last time when it was crawling with tourists!  I had carried my phone on the off-chance there was service here, but had yet to take it out of my bag.  I pulled it out and there was AT&T E!  I sent a couple quick text messages to Kelly updating here on where I was and decided to snap a couple quick pictures.  For some reason, April and Mike’s phone number was missing, so I could not send them anything.  I doubt they would have received any messages from me as they would have been hiking down into the valley by now.

The ramp:

Mountain vista:

Me, not looking too bad after 34 miles!  :-)

Mt Collins

From Clingman’s I had to descend down the AT to the trail towards Mt. Collins, about 3.5 miles away.  This section of trail was very tough — it was steep and muddy and rocky, and it started to sprinkle.  And then it started to pour.  I finally had to break out the black trashbag I had brought… I brought it instead of a rain jacket to save space and weight, and the trash bags can be useful in many ways.  I quickly poked a hole in it for my head, put it on, put my buff around my neck to keep water from dripping down, and put my hat on.  Now it was raining so hard the trail was literally a stream bed…  After a while I thought for sure I should have come to the Mt Collins split, but it was nowhere to be found.  I really had hoped I had not passed it.

And then I met Gandalf.  Well, he reminded me of Gandalf.  All of a sudden, there he was.  A man in a yellow 3/4 length poncho with the hood on, and a large staff in his left hand.  At first I thought it was Mike, and I was impressed that he had hiked nearly 8 miles to find me! Then I realized it wasn’t Mike.  I asked Gandalf if he had passed the trail to Mt Collins.  ”I don’t know,” was his response.  :-/  I said either I passed it or you did.  And he said “Maybe it is 20 minutes beyond for you.”  Ok, thanks for the info, and I head out.  He was thoughtful enough to yell “Stay Dry!”  Right, this was like the Biblical Flood happening and I have a black trash bag as a rain jacket.  Stay dry!  I thought of lots of responses but in the end just ran off.  I was more worried about staying warm at this point!  Cold rain at 6000+ can be chilly!

Two minutes later, I hit the trail split!  I guess he must have been out of it to have not noticed.  The beautiful thing here was a sign for Fork Ridge trail 0.2 miles further along the AT!  Here I was at the 1/2 way point of SCAR, just about at 20:00 pace which is a 24 hour run if you do all 72 miles.  I had really slowed on the climb up and down Clingman’s!  From here, though, the rest of SCAR is mostly downhill.  Should have been easy to maintain that pace or even speed up a little, right?!  Except night would hit in about 4 hours, so I’d have a good 7 or 8 hours in the dark.  Anyway, the plan today was for Half SCAR, so maybe next time!

Fork Ridge Trail

I reached the sign for Fork Ridge Trail 0.2 miles later just as the sign at Mt Collins had said.  Only here was a problem.  There was now another sign that said Fork Ridge was closed due to the road construction on Clingman’s.  Now I had a dilemma.   If it was closed where Mike and April were to park and hike down on Deer Creek Trail, would they be at the bottom?  My choice was to run 4.6 miles on the AT to US 441 and head down that road to the trailhead they should have been parked at which would have been maybe 3 or 4 miles more on the road.  If the car was there, I’d run down the trail and meet them.  That would be about 12 more miles of running.  Or I run down the closed trail 5 miles, and if they are there, I am done, and if not, I have 4 miles to run up to the road and hopefully find some clue to where they might be.

I decided to stick to the original plan and run down Fork Ridge.  If they were not there, it was less running for me.  If they were there, it was a lot less running for me.  I went from the AT another 20 meters to Clingman’s Dome Road, crossed, and went to the trail head for Fork Ridge.  Here another sign slightly caught my attention — it said the bridge at Deer Creak was out and not usable.  Hmm… It’s a creek, right?  I can cross a creek without a bridge…  That thought stuck with me much of the way down this trail.

So, the bad thing about a trail being closed is that it is not maintained.  Well, this trail turned out to be  bushwhacking adventure in some places, there were so many down trees.  And there were a couple of washouts where there was not a whole lot of trail left.  But when the trail was open, it was good.  5 miles down with nearly 3000 feet of descent.  It was here that my knees finally let me know that they  were getting a little tired of all the pounding!  Overall they had held up really well, though, so not much to complain about….

As I got closer and closer to end, I kept wondering what would happen if April and Mike were not there… Or if the bridge was out and the creek was more than I bargained for.  And the sound of water kept getting louder and louder.  And LOUDER.  So now I had some serious concerns about creek crossing with no bridge.

When I finally got to the bottom and came to the creek — there April and Mike were!!  Woohoo!  13.5 hours and 42 miles later, it was so good to see them, and it was awesome to see they had set up my tent!  :-)

Me at the finish, still smiling!

After taking off my shoes, I had to eat before anything else!  :-)

Here is the stream we camped beside… it was crossable!  and Very very cold.  After I ate, I used my buff to rinse off the days sweat and grime.  April even had soap which was a nice surprise and treat.  I had packed a camp towel in the backpack April had carried down, so I dried off with that and got dressed in clean clothes.  I have to give a big thanks here to April and Mike.  They carried all my back packing gear — more food, fresh clean clothes, my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc., as well as the gear they needed, all the way down for me.  Awesome!

Garmin Data

Here is the map from Garmin…  Too bad wordpress.com won’t let me embed it here.  Oh well, a picture works too I suppose!

And the elevation profile:

Garmin says I did nearly 14,000 feet of elevation, which I think is about right for this run.   That much climbing and descending made running tough.

Hiking out

After a decent nights sleep, we had breakfast, packed everything up, and hiked out the 4 miles to the car.  Yes, I wore the huaraches out!  :-)  I also carried my backpacking pack and all my gear, as well as my running pack and running shoes.  I just strapped them on to my pack and hiked out.  Overall, my legs felt good, other than my right hip.

Wildlife

Besides the bear encounter described above, I saw the following:

Turkeys — one sitting on a log about eye level just  10-12 feet away.  We stared at each other until I finally said something to him like “Good Morning,” when he proceeded to jump off the log and fly away.  Yes, turkey’s can fly, at least a limited distance!   Then a few hours later I came across two more… One jumped off the trail fairly quickly, the other ran the trail in front of me for a good 30 seconds before it realized it should just get out of the way.  Or maybe he was pacing me.

Fox or coyote — I caught a glimpse of a sandy small dog shaped animal running the trail in front of me, though I could not tell exactly what it was.

Whippoorwill – I didn’t see it, but it kept me company as I climbed out of Fontana in the dark… Reminded me of home, though our Whippoorwill is about 50 db louder than this one!

Toads – many toads on the trail, especially in the morning — one the size of a softball!  I swear!

Gear selection and thoughts

I always like to re-cap my gear and nutrition to help me on future events.

Nutrition

I again used a strong/thick mix of perpetuem — about 500 calories per bottle.  This time I mixed in a couple tablespoons of chia seeds.   I dilute this with water from my hydration bladder as I run, and this allows me to get in a lot of calories with relatively little weight.  This was my main fuel.  Beyond that I had two or three bars, two or three packs of cliff shots, 4 hammer gels, and combos.  If I went longer I would have liked to have something like a PB&J or almond butter and honey.

Gear

• Ultimate Direction Wasp  – great little pack, rides nice and high, love the vest in front with 4 pockets to give quick access to food and other items…  a touch small if I wanted to do the full SCAR unsupported, but for half SCAR it was fine…  And if I do a full SCAR with support at US 441, it would work fine.  I kept one hand held bottle in reserve in the pack.  The pack did give me a small rash on my back where the bottom of the pack must have been rubbing… I was pretty much wet all day so I am sure that had something to do with it!
• 64 oz hydration bladder — just for water
• 2 x 22 oz sport bottles — to carry my perpetuem/chia mix… one in the pack and one in the hand held…
• Nathan Hand Held — used this to hold one hand held bottle… it also has a small pocket to keep something like a pack of cliff shots and bar or gel.  I would clip this on to a loop on the pack’s shoulder strap now and then when I needed two hands to work with gear, or to use on my legs as I climbed the steep stuff.  Clipping the bottle like this to the pack does not work well when the bottle is full and you are running — there is too much bounce.  But when you are hiking up or down the steep inclines, it works fine.  And if the bottle is empty or close to empty, it is also not too bad.
• Icebreaker shirt – never leave home without Icebreaker!
• running shorts & under armor 7″ compression shorts — the compression shorts really helped eliminate chafing.  I was worried about the seams but they rarely bothered me
• ekko tekko socks – used these for about 30 miles
• injinji socks – after I taped my left foot, I switched to these for the remainder of the run.  I often use these as a “liner” when the feet start feeling hot spots, but this time I used them alone.
• NB 790′s – I was worried this might not be quite enough shoe, as it is a trail racing flat, but overall I was pretty happy with them.  There were a few times I would feel the jolt of a rock or root through the bottom, and early on my left ball of foot felt slightly bruised so I switched to a mid foot strike instead of forefoot when the terrain allowed it
• Pettzl Tikka and Fenix P3D – nice and light yet bright head lamp… the P3D is 120 lumens and helps me find my way quickly if things get tough with the tikka.
• black plastic trash bag — these have many uses, but on this run, when it started to pour, it became my rain poncho
• emergency blanket — just in case… I have carried this same blanket on many events and have yet to use it, but some day I know it will come in handy
• Leatherman skeletool CX — I always carry a leatherman, even though they are heavy.   This one is only 5 oz. so not too bad.  9 times out of 10 I only use the knife, which I did this run for cutting the water treatment tablets.  But having a couple of the other tools, especially the pliers, is a nice safety in my opinion
• Buff — another item I rarely do long events without.  I mostly used it to wipe the sweat off my face, but it can also be used as a pre-filter for water, as a head covering if you get cold, and around the neck to keep water from dripping down through the trash bag poncho I made.

Final Thoughts

I’m now about 2 days post run, and my muscular soreness is just about gone.  My right hip is still a bit sore, but much better than yesterday.  I have some kind of weird feeling in my left ball of foot — like a metatarsal is popping when I walk barefoot, but it also seems to be getting better.  Overall I am happy with how I felt post-run.  While my knees had started to get sore the last 5 miles or so from all the pounding, they were fine the next day for the hike out and have given me no troubles since then.

I had planned to take at least a week off from running, and I am definitely going to do that, and maybe run just once a week for 2 or 3 miles for a week or two after that.  I still plan to lift more for the next month or so, to try to regain some of the lost muscle from rocky mountain spotted fever.

I am finding it hard not to think of the next big event, and a 50 mile race in the fall sounds tempting.  At the same time, I had said I would take some time off before deciding what to do next, so I need to stick to it.  I could not help but ask Sultan to compare SCAR with some of the ultra’s he has done, and he responded that a full SCAR is more difficult than most 100 mile races.  So that makes me feel better, because Half SCAR was one of the toughest things I have done.

I loved every minute of it, and can’t wait to attempt the full course in the not too distant future!

Thanks for reading!

After coming back from Boston, where I watched my Dad and sister run the marathon, I realized I had caught the Boston bug…  Even though Dad can get me in without a qualifying time, I had to check the what my BQ time is to see if I would have a chance.  For me at nearly age 40, I’d have to run a 3:20, or 7:38 minutes per mile for 26.2 miles.  I can run that now for 5 miles, but adding more than 20 would be tough.  I’m also torn, as I don’t really enjoy road running that much, but instead love the trails and right now want to concentrate on trail ultras..

Either way, I had heard about this book so I thought I’d check it out.  The main premise is “3plus2″ which is 3 hard runs per week, plus 2 cross training workouts.  The hard runs are all about speed — interval work, short tempos, and long tempos (or at least long runs with tempo like speeds mixed in).  The cross training is mostly about other aerobic work where you are allowed to mix in items that will save your body from some of the pounding of running, such as swimming and biking.  They also show weight workouts and 2 running drills.

The book is filled with all kinds of tables such as:  pace charts for what your times should be for various distance races based on your current 5k race time;  times for your intervals and tempo’s based on current 5k times; training plans for 5k, 10k, and marathon; and on and on.  Lots of tables.

Since I have not actually used the book to train for a particular race, I can’t say if it is effective, though looking around at reviews on-line, many people seem happy with it.

I will say the authors were extremely prompt with responding to a couple questions I had.  For example, I had hoped I could use Heart Rate as an effort indicator instead of just pace, so I could do my long runs on trails.  That would allow me to pursue both my goals of trail ultras and speed work.  Bill Pierce responded within 24 hours that “The principle of specificity dictates that training on trails is good trainng for racing on trails.”    Later, Scott Murr did respond with a much lengthier email all about using heart rate levels, which I still have not finished due to its length!

Right now I am not concentrating on speed at all, as I have SCAR coming up (70 mile run in the Smokies on the Appalachian Trail, though I am pretty sure I will cut it to 33 or 40 miles due to my recent bought with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever).  After SCAR I will re-assess and decide, and while I will most likely not follow the training schedules in this book exactly, I will incorporate some of the speed work into my training to see how close I can get to that 7:38 over 26 miles!