2022 Florida Sea 2 Sea adventure race

Posted on September 22, 2022 by seanb724

Writing this nearly 7 months after the fact…. Will keep it short.

After a ~15 year hiatus, I went back to Florida in 2021 for the Sea 2 Sea 72 hour expedition race. That ended tragically, so I went back in 2022 with Will and Ryan for another go.

We finished in 73 hours with something like 58 controls, which isn’t bad but not great. Our only real complaint about this race is the maps — sometimes there’s just so little accuracy, finding a control becomes an “Easter egg hunt.” You know you are in the general vicinity, but you could be 100m away, so we walk all around trying to find it. And it’s just a bit of luck sometimes, or perseverance…

The biggest leg this year was a 45 mile paddle that we started at nearly 11 p.m. on the 2nd night. Going in to the second night, with no sleep on night 1, on the water, is always hard, and a few hours in, we had to find somewhere to rest. We were all falling asleep while trying to paddle! But we are on a river in FL, which is often swamp like. I finally gave in and said let’s just pull over, I’ll sleep on the driest land I can find while you two sleep in the boat… We pull over at what I think is a good spot, and right where I would have laid down was a 4′ gator! That got the adrenaline going a bit and we were able to muster the energy to continue on until we found a “landing” — some sandy beach where we saw a few other S2S boats pulled over. Turns out we had found the beach for a camp ground.

I was so tired I got out and laid right down on the sand. We had one bivy for emergency use, so I put my big black plastic trash bag on my lower body, and put a fleece up top, and fell right asleep. It was low 50’s and after I while I was so cold, I couldn’t stand it. But I was so tired, I didn’t want to get up. I really wanted to wake up to a new reality. It’s the only time I can recall having that feeling — that I just wanted to wake up to something completely different.

I had just read Victor Frankel’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” and I here I am, a little cold doing something I chose to do “suffering.” But he and millions of others suffered for years in much worse conditions. How could I complain?

After about 3 miserable hours I got up, found the camp rest room, and then wandered a bit trying to find Will and Ryan, which took a while. I finally found them, woke them up and said we had to keep moving, I was too cold to be here any longer.

That’s the one story I’ll share from the race, but Kristen did put this little video together which does capture some great aspects of AR.

2021 Hellgate 100k++

Posted on March 17, 2022 by seanb724

I used to be very good about writing race reports, but not so much these days. So this is only 4 months late, and won’t have much detail.

But with that said, I will write a little… Some of you know I had sort of lost interest in most races, and this was before covid even started. I’m not sure why I lost interest, but traditional races like WS100 or UTMB that I once had on my bucket list, no longer called to me. Maybe it’s temporary, maybe not. What did interest me were crazier races and events, such as Barkley Fall Classic, Rogaines (24 hour orienteering events), and “projects” — self supported efforts like the Linville Gorge grand loop, SCAR, the Quad, etc.

But one day late September, Hellgate suddenly popped into my head… Not sure why, but I thought that would be “fun.” I figured it would be sold out, but a quick search found that it is application based and I had a week until applications were due around the 1st of October, so I waited for the application to be published, filled it out, and waited to hear something.

Funny thing — I received the following text from David Horton, legendary ultra runner, Barkley Finisher, and the RD:

Guess he couldn’t read my writing on the app! I responded with:

“woohoo! That’s exciting! And Terrifying!”

So now my current training philosophy would be put to the test — I want to be able to jump in to *any* *event* (running, biking, hiking – anything!) with just 2 months notice. With minimal run training (10-15 mpw), now I suddenly had two weeks to get ready to run 66.6 miles with 13,000′ of climb.

Quick report: Felt really good until about mile 45, then there was the “forever section” which was rocks and roots, all covered by a thick layer of leaves. I think that strained my R knee, which began to really hurt around mile 55, where I was reduced to a shuffle. And my feet started to fall apart. I went from being close to a “Horton Time” of 15 hours, to a finish in 16 hour 49 minutes. But now I want another shot, to have a good run here! Lack of run volume really caught up to me after mile 45…

And some photos:

37,000 feet

Posted on September 20, 2021 by seanb724

Putting this out there — maybe the public notice will get me motivated.

I set a goal this year to climb 365,000′, across all disciplines – running, hiking, trekking, biking, including virtual runs/rides (treadmill / trainer), and while I started the year well, I have fallen way behind.

Almost 37,000 feet behind! Or roughly 1300′ per day.

Limitless Vertical Challenge

Posted on June 5, 2020 by seanb724

With COVID-19 cancelling most races, there are a lot of virtual races / challenges popping up. I opted to do the Great Virtual Run Across Tennessee (1000+km from May 1 to Aug 31), mostly to just keep me getting out the door. But when I saw the Limitless Vertical Challenge, I knew right away I wanted to give 29,029’ (in a week) a shot. I also opted to do it all outdoors, which would be more even more difficult. (Of course I’m not taking anything away from those that did their challenges on a treadmill! That’s certainly no easy feat either!)

All six levels… I knew level 6 would not be possible staying strictly outdoors! At least not for me.

Memorial Day came and I got some good hills in both near the 7D home as well as in Linville Gorge with Kelly and Reece. The next few days I stayed a little closer to home and focused on hill repeats. Once I thought 29,029 was in the bag, I opted to go longer — 20 mile days on the AT — so I could go back to parts of the AT I’d not seen in a while.

Here’s the daily elevation gains per Strava.

I ended up with 31,280’ covered in a little under 30 hours, but over 97 miles! Of course, a lot of that was power hiking due to the grade, but there was a fair bit of running too. To go from 20 mpw to 97 was a bit of a stretch, and I definitely felt a bit worn out for a few days.

Below is a gallery of photos from the week…

Tetons Day 6: Paintbrush Canyon

Posted on July 2, 2018 by seanb724

After a warm night in a hotel, we both got in short runs, and then had great breakfast at the Trapper Grill. We then headed up into Paintbrush Canyon, the canyon we had had permits to camp in the night before. In the parking lot I saw a couple coming out with all the gear and talked to them about conditions they experienced, and it pretty much rained on them all afternoon, evening, and into the night. So we felt justified that we had baled on our backpacking plans!

Paintbrush is a beautiful canyon. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but it would come down to Death or Paintbrush. They were so different. Death definitely felt more remote, and the waterfall up was amazing. Paintbrush had amazing open views of valley lakes.

We hiked up about as far as we could go — large snow field blocked the way. At that point, looking further into the canyon was like looking at winter, but all you had to do was turn around and see spring. We hiked back down a bit to an amazing camp site and set up our chairs, and cooked a hot lunch, and spoke to a few other backpackers that would be staying here this night.

When we got back to town we drove to The Bird, a burger joint about 10 minutes south of Jackson, that one of the local backpackers we had met coming out of Open Canyon had recommended. It had a fun atmosphere and was quite good.

A bit of what some of the stream crossings are like:

Haiti – travel day

Posted on February 16, 2018 by seanb724

Well, it’s finally here! All the training is behind me and the experience of Haiti is in front of me. I am so grateful for this opportunity! Thanks again to everyone for all of your support!

I stayed at the Tischer’s to avoid having Kelly have to drive me to the airport at 4 a.m. Jase and I were up and out the door by 4:20. There were no problems with security and the flight to Miami was smooth.

I read the following card from Kelly when we arrived. I am blessed with an amazing wife who loves me, gets me, and is always there for me.

In Miami we met a lot of the runners at the gate for the flight to Cap Haitian:

I was upgraded so had a decent lunch on the flight, and was the first one through immigration. I acted like I knew what I was doing so was outside pretty quickly. Then I was approached by many taxi drivers asking if I needed a ride. After a bit, others started trickling out and we met the RAH crew.

Here’s the bus we took to the hotel. There were also several pick up trucks to carry bags!

Bus selfie:

The bus ride over to the hotel was a little crazy. I was instantly struck by the trash — it’s literally everywhere! 😦

The road was crazy. I struggled to get decent shots, but it was narrow, crowded, rutted and seemed a bit dangerous. But our driver was amazing!

The hotel is literally at the end of the road and is pretty nice.

Some of the gang went for a run. Not me!

Most of us did make a trek to an old fort…

After that we had a team meeting to go over logistics and safety, had dinner, and now it’s almost time for bed. We have a 4 a.m. wake up call and will be running by 5. 34 miles tomorrow finishing with a long climb up a mountain.

2017 East Coast Magical Mystery Tour Day 1

Posted on June 21, 2017 by seanb724

This year we won’t be heading to a national park out west 😦 — instead have quite the itinerary planned on the east coast with stops in DC, Pittsburg, girls to NYC and boys to DE, etc.

Day 1 had us drive to DC to the National Cathederal and then see U2 with our friends the Martins in seats next to us, and other friends from PBO and Chapel Hill in attendance but not directly with us.

Photos of the day below.

A golden opportunity to mention quantity missed?

The National Cathedral had damage in an earthquake a couple years back that they will be working of for quite some time.

Stained glass depicting NASA’s trip to the moon:

After the Cathedral we got a taste of DC traffic — about an hour to go just 13 miles to get to the hotel! We had a quick turn around to get a quick bite to eat and to the stadium for the show. We got an Uber Black but on the way to dinner changed plans and had him drop us off at Chinese, and then walked to the stadium.

After ticket resolution, we finally made it in and got see the Lumineers play a couple songs!

U2 was pretty amazing, as always.

Ankle update

Posted on May 23, 2017 by seanb724

Saw the Doctor this morning for my 20 day follow-up. Lot’s to digest so let me just bullet point it:

I was worried yesterday about the base of the 5th metatarsal, so that’s where he started. It was sore and in general the middle of the foot felt tight and inflamed. And the base of the metatarsal was sore to pressure. PT’s resonance test on it was fine, so it was unlikely to be a stress fracture, but I wanted the doc to check it out. He immediately ruled out stress fracture there, and just called it tarsometatarsal joint inflammation.
Main cause of that is not wearing the boot long enough, but worse (in his mind), I was wearing my Luna sandals. And that’s mostly what I’ve worn the past week or more, other than when on the bike trainer and I’ve put on my bike shoes (not clipless, just platform shoes). That includes all the walking around Carowinds on Friday, Saturday soccer game and errands, etc. I did have the brace on for the most part until Sunday afternoon when I stopped wearing it. And I walked barefoot around the house and on the treadmill when not in Luna’s. He just pointed out that with barefoot or sandals, the load on the tarsals is much higher, and right now, the foot needs less stress, not more. So he wants me in a shoe for a while. I’ve got on my bike shoe right now which is pretty stiff and shouldn’t allow much movement.
There is still lots of soreness all over – peroneal tendon, peroneal muscle, ATFL, calcaneousfibular ligament, anterior tibialis, etc. Some of those are likely due to lack of shoe per above above but some of course due to the original injury.
He said if it’s really sore, wear the boot. (It’s not really sore, in my mind.) He said the brace is really just for aversion and wouldn’t help much with where I am right now.
He mostly wants to see inflammation go down and recommends topical and oral NSAIDs, elevation, massage, maybe a bit of ice.
He wrote a prescription for Rayos, a delayed release prednisone, that he said I could take at night, to combat the body’s inflammation. I’m a bit torn, as I really don’t like taking things like steroids or NSAIDs unless I really have to. I would take this at night, and the delayed release means it limits the body’s inflammation response which is greatest while sleeping. I’ll have a think on this and read up on it before making a decision.
(I have been doing the topical NSAID 2x per day, but have limited oral NSAIDs unless it’s really bothersome. I have been taking minerva and using collagen in a shake to try to help with inflammation and speed up natural recovery.)
He didn’t say anything about when I could run, just listen to your body, and when there’s no pain, then I can do whatever. As there’s some pain / discomfort now, I’m certain he was implying don’t run yet, and don’t walk too much yet! At least not without a more supportive shoe.
He did say cycling was fine as long as it doesn’t cause additional pain/discomfort. I rode 85 miles last week and only feel that’s been a good thing, albeit starting to get boring. (I’ve only ridden on the trainer, not outside!)

I’m still not too concerned with no running since I have no races until late August. But even then, I am in this for the long game and want to be running when I’m 70+. So making sure this heals properly now is key. I’m most concerned with the possibility of having chronic ankle sprains going forward. In all my many years of trail and off-trail running, while my ankles have rolled many times, they have never sprained! So ensuring strength and mobility in all the tendons, ligaments, and muscles, is most key to me right now.

Here are some photos over time:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 7:

Day 13

2017 ATT Marathon

Posted on March 22, 2017 by seanb724

I added the ATT Marathon to my race calendar pretty late – about a month before the race itself. I added it as a “training race” (or a ‘C’ race) to prepare for the MST 50k three weeks out. I’ve been mostly doing single track hilly/mountainous ultras for a while and feel like I’ve lost some speed at a more road like run, and figured I’d be doing a long training run that weekend anyway, so why not?

I met Sarah and David at Lowes in PBO at 5:30, and Sarah’s husband drove us over. The race states to arrive by 5:30 even if you have a parking pass to guarantee a spot, but we arrived closer to 6. There were still no issues parking. It was a bit chilly (42F?) but I opted to leave the vest behind and just run with arm warmers, gloves, and a 200 weight icebreaker tee. I also had a buff over my ears. While it was a bit chilly walking to the start and checking in my post race bag, once in the starting corral it wasn’t bad — lots of heat with all the bodies!

My plan was to run out with Mark Manz who was to lead the 3:40 pace group for a mile or two or three, and then speed up and shoot for roughly an 8:00/mile pace avg. But I didn’t see Mark there so I thought I’d jump in with the 3:35 group. David was up ahead in the 3:30 group. About 2 miles in, the 3:35 group was only 10s behind the 3:30 group, so I felt like the pacing was off. I had come up on David and ran with him for a few. Once we turned on to the ATT, it’s a slight downhill, and I knew it was time to pick it up. I passed the 3:35 group and quickly decided to pass the 3:30 group too — I didn’t like being behind a group.

So then I was in no man’s land… I watched the 3:25 group up ahead, but didn’t really close the gap much at all. Looking at my watch, I figured they were more in the 3:22-3:23 range and was content to just run my race. There’s not a lot to write about for the middle portion of the race. It’s like a T, so you go north and turn around, then south and turn around, and then back to the “trunk” of the T and back to the start/finish. The two turn arounds let me see the various pace groups and other runners a couple times.

I held steady until the south turn around and was really feeling good. But I recalled from the 2014 race that I imploded from mile 23-25 or so, with the every so slight 1-2% grade really wearing me down. This time I thought if I could just get over that climb averaging under 8:00 for each of those miles, I’d be pretty happy. I ended up doing 7:40 or so and it didn’t feel hard at all.

At that point I really picked it up a notch, and finally felt like I was working. But with just a couple miles to go, now was the time, C race or not. I knew I’d be under 3:20, and thought briefly I could even go for a PR (3:17). But alas I had waited too long to have a shot at that! I finished very strong in 3:18:44 on my watch and had a BQ by 6+ minutes. I was very pleased with that!

Here’s the pace chart… So much for 3:40 (8:25) to start! But it never felt hard.