MMTR 2012

The snow year! Felt great coming into this race. I had trained hard. I had run the course hard. Felt that a 7 hr finish time was a possibility. The last 2 years I had run grindstone 4 weeks prior to the race and by buck mountain felt those miles. Not this year. No grindstone in my legs. Uroc giving me some speed and some experience. I thought this might be the year. I WAS WRONG! My mental goal was to stay positive. I accomplished that. Went out fast but not feeling overly fast. Running good and consistent. Got a little freaked when my bro who was crewing me did not show up to parkway station but went on and like I always tell everyone who runs ultras. "Expect for things to go wrong". No sweat. Just ate from aid stations. Worse thing was snagging a GU from aid station and it was a cap pachinko flavor. Disgusting but o'well. Ran with Brian Schmitt till reservoir and saw my bro. Changed out pack for bottles and got some cliff shots. Ran mostly with some fast hiking and close to where it flattens out I get passed by Brian Rusecki who would later win the whole stinking thing. He passed me like I was standing still. The only words from his mouth were " you guys started out fast huh". Apparently he had his game plan and killed it from that point. I came into every aid station right on my mark. Long mountain wayside by 3:29 and then climbed to buck mountain in 35 min. Flats feeling great and downhills even better. Passed another runner who would later drop near wiggins aid station. I remembered that Jared Hesse and I had run an aid station for grindstone and I honestly never realized the effort and time it took to run an aid station so this race I had a great appreciation for all aid station workers and gave high fives to most and said thanks to each one. I went into loop 12 min behind leaders and honestly felt like I was going to make my move now! WRONG AGAIN! The snow came. I didn't believe all the reports of snow but they were true. I have a very low gait and my feet do not come off the ground very much so I kept feeling like I was dragging my feet and could not get into any rhythm. Gary Robbins passed me coming down from out and back in loop and looked like a gazelle and I was running like a buffalo. Needless to say I knew I was in 4 th place now and the people behind me were closer than I thought. I hiked a whole bunch in the loop and swore that everyone was going to catch me. I got a little frustrated but then looked around and laughed out loud cause this will probably never happen again at mmtr and it was cool to be a part of running this. Done with loop finally and saw my wife and bro. Got 2 bottles cause I knew it was going to take longer than I thought. So I ran every step of that next section cause I knew there was a lot of hiking in store. Reached the old AT section and like I said before I could not run! So I hiked. I kept looking back thinking I was going so slow that someone is bound to catch me. But alas no one did. I kept trying to run in the post holes of the people in front of me but they wait her had really small feet or I have huge feet cause I kept missing their holes. I kept dragging my feet. Finally the last aid station. Saw Matt Day and asked him how much behind I was from 3rd. He told me I was 3rd. I said ohh no someone got lost. So I ran the last section hard and fast. All downhill baby!! The HOKAS felt great here and even better on the road. I came in at 8:07. Good enough for 3rd overall. My beautiful family were all there and friends. As always we waited there for all my friends to come in. This race was especially special cause it was my birthday this day. I turned 36 and remember the first time I ran this race in 2009. My good friends brought me cake and Sang to me. I only benched 28 reps for the ironman comp but I was ok with that. I think the snow and HOKAS made me feel incredible. Almost no soreness and of course the ice baths help! As always thanks to my crew, my wife and kiddos, friends and Clark Zealand and DHO for putting this thing on. As always anything good in life should point us to the creator of that good! Jesus who created us with these passions and desires for acceptance, love, exhilaration, etc can only ultimately be fulfilled in HIM!. I love that. Don't get stuck on a small fix when he promises to fulfill us! Hellgate next. 2nd last year. What's in store this year? Hopefully something really special!!!

Humbled and challenged at UROC 2012

Humbled and challenged are the 2 words that describe this race for me. I came into this race feeling strong. My goal time was to run a 9hr- 9:25 and I would get into top 5 and get some cash!! I felt like a kid at the pre race elite panel. A who's who amongst ultra runners was there. For some reason I still wasn't intimidated. Wake up and christy, Abby and I drive up to wintergreen. Still not to nervous. So we are off and I tell myself to stay in the top 10 and hold on. But everyone wanted to be in the top 10. We were running super fast down hill. I thought these super fast marathoners were not suppose to run these technical downhills this fast I told myself. I held on! Needless to say by the time we got out of wintergreen drive my quads were already busted and we had more than 40 to go. Not good! All day I was chasing shingi a runner from Japan that was a 100k rd world champ. I just kept running! Saw my wife and Abby a couple times at some aid stations. Then at about mile 32 I saw them and went into a single track 8 mile out and ask section. Made the mistake of only taking one bottle and ran out of water 3 miles in. I kept eating but was very thirsty. As the front runners past me I saw Max King, Sage, David riddle, Jorge m, David Mackey, nick Clark, and other killer runners. Ten the thought occurred to me that I was expecting these guys to die? These guys don't die do they? Every single one of them are winning races somewhere in the nation any given weekend! So I went into a negative spiral. Maybe the thirst, the fact that I knew that the likelihood of coming in top 5 was against me and that I saw Ellie greenwood only a couple of minutes behind me along with some other great runners. I came out the out and back the same place but mentally I was shot! I finally got water. My wife reminded me that Ellie was right behind. To be honest I didn't really care. I have never wanted to quit a race more than now. The negative thought kept following me for the next 10 miles. Then Ellie passed me. I thought ok now is a good move. Stay with her and let her pull you in! Wrong! I could not stay with her for the life of me. I tried! But she just kept getting further and further away. I did not walk a step but still kept losing her. The negative feelings subsided when I finally saw my family, my friends that drove from Lynchburg to cheer me on. I smiled and thanked them so much! I felt ok again. Ok to finish. Ok to fight through such negative feelings. The road didn't treat me well and the last hill back up wintergreen was almost unbearable. I finished 11th over all and 10th male. Finished in 9:23. I was humbled by how fast the guys and girl in front of me ran. I have to admit that I was disappointed that I could not dig deeper than I did. Yet 10th male in this field was a good feeling. My wife told me it was not my best race and that she felt like the other runners had a pocket they dug into that I have I just didn't dig deep down into. I probably would have to agree. So I will train harder, smarter, differently so when the time comes to dig deeper I can find that pocket!!! As always thanks to my sponsor theaidstation.com for all my trail running Supplies.