Tommyknocker 12 Hour Race Report, 2017

Ahhh! What can I say about this year's version of the Tommyknocker 12 Hour ultra? Well, not as much as I might have said had I written this report like a month ago when it the race was still fresh in my mind. Hopefully procrastination hasn't dulled my memories of the event too much.

The 2017 Tommyknocker was run in late May, the 20th to be exact. Last year it was run in September and it was on the hot side. My hope was the high temp on May 20th would be a pleasant, oh, say 70? That would be nice. What I got?

I thought I left this bullshit in the Midwest. Ugh. Well, it definitely not hot!

No, it did not snow on race day. It snowed the day before. I believe. Could have been two days before. Memory is a little hazy. The point is that after the start at the bottom of White Ranch at 6 a.m. race morning, we climbed towards the top of White ranch on Purgatory (about 2,300 feet of elevation gain) where we were greeted with increasing amounts of the white stuff. In some spots the snow was up to ten inches deep by my estimation. This weather threw a serious wrench in my plans to break 40 miles. Not only were we trudging through deep snow, but the temp was going to hit a sunny 60 or so which was sure to turn the trails into slush and/or rivers. Oh joy! 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For those who don't know the Tommyknocker is a 12 hour timed race in the foothills of Golden, Colorado. You begin at the bottom of White Ranch Park and everybody runs to the top. Then you run the Green Loop. After that you pick a ping pong ball with Green, Orange, Blue, or Yellow on it. Then you run that colored loop. Towards the end of the day you head back down to the start. Finished.

Runners heading up Purgatory

Ok! So I plowed snow up purgatory and did my green loop. With the trail conditions what they were I knew I couldn't piss around at the aid station like I did last year. A couple of times I wandered around between loops for at least twenty minutes. I won't lie, It's been too long for me to remember exactly what loops I did and when but pretty early on in the day I got to do the 4.55 mile Red loop, which I had not gotten the chance to do last year. I did an orange loop... I think? Who can be sure. It wasn't long before I got the dreaded yellow loop, a bastard that is six miles long with just under 2,000 feet of gain and loss. My hiking has been strong this spring so that loop went pretty well but it was getting REALLY sloppy towards the end. I knew if I drew that loop again later it was going to be awful.

A great view of White Ranch and the flatlands.... and my thumb

Luckily the race director Sherpa John decided to take the yellow loop out of the equation for the safety of the runners and to prevent some serious trail damage from occurring with the worsening muddy conditions. I can't tell you how relieved that made me. I knew from experience that the yellow loop late in the day could be an awful, soul-crushing exercise with a lot of cursing involved. So let's just say I was far from upset that there was no possibility of having to do yellow again that day.

Despite the conditions things were gong really well. I though I might have a legit shot at my forty mile goal! I was in and out of the aid station quickly, fueling was seemingly going pretty well and I was still going fairly strong. That all came to a screeching halt around mile 30 or so. I think it was the last couple miles of a red loop that did it. Or maybe it was orange. Did I even DO an orange loop? Shit. Who knows? It quickly became a blur of shuffling and desperation. That's a fact.

Had to navigate around this downed tree a couple of times. Reminded me of the
old days at Mississippi Palisades. They NEVER cleared the trees at Illinois parks!

One of my goals was that, unlike last year, I would actually be running a good portion of Purgatory back down to the finish. How hard can it be to save enough to do some solid running on a 5.5 miles (mostly) downhill? Apparently it's very, very difficult cause I can't freakin figure the shit out. I took some time in the aid station considering whether to try another loop but I knew if I did I would probably not make it back to the finish within the 12 hour time limit. Just like last year I was walking just about 90% of the journey back down Purgatory. Crap. I just gotta get more training mileage in next time.

All in all I was happy with my day considering the first few hours were on deep, wet, slippery snow (which resulted in a couple nice falls that took some zip out of me) and the rest of the time the trails were literally like running through an endless mud puddle. My feet were so wet for so long I didn't even notice after awhile. I got in almost 35 miles with about 9k of elevation (I'm guessing there, since I can't remember my exact loops I can't add it up and I don't wear a watch) and in those conditions I consider that a success for me. I dry conditions I would have gotten over my goal of 40 I expect.

Like a pro shot there. No? Damn.

Many thanks to Sherpa John from Human Potential Running Series and all the volunteers that manned the aid station and marked the course the day and night before. Had some nice company and conversation with Jaime from the 24 hour this spring, Ernie from Ft. Collins (If I remember correctly), and some others who's names I did not catch/cannot remember. Great, inspiring people who were absolutely crushing it!

 Hopefully the family schedule allows me to run this race for the third time next year. The snow caused my daughters state track race to be rescheduled for the same day as Tommyknocker (it was just a relay, no big deal. If it had been the 3200 I'd have been there) and next year she will likely be running state and graduating that weekend PLUS my son will have his college graduation and final track meet at the same time as this great race so we will just have to wait and see.

Next up on the Guy Pauley race calendar? The Barr Trail Mountain Race. Tomorrow. Starts at the base of Pikes Peak and climbs over 3,500 feet to Barr Camp and back down over 12.6 miles. Qualifies me to enter the Pikes Peak Ascent Ascent next year.

Be good to each other!

Race Report: 24 Hours Of Palmer Lake Fun Run (Death Race)

This past Saturday the time had finally come: 24 Hours Of Palmer Lake Fun Run. The recent emails and Facebook posts from the race director had used the term "Death Race" instead of "Fun Run." I was understandably concerned that the tone of this event may have taken a not-so-subtle turn towards the sadistic! As it turned out, both phrases would be pretty accurate definitions of portions of my race.

But first off, my training. I had really begun training for this event back in the fall by trying to get out every day if possible for at least two or three miles. I have never been an every day runner but I felt this was a big step if I really decided to do this race. I had a couple of pretty decent streaks over the fall and winter, one just over 40 days in a row around October and November and one well over 60 closer to the race date. In my typical fashion, I didn't have a real detailed training plan. With about two months out I set weekly mileage goals and that was about it. I also tried to mimic the race by running mostly flat-ish. Some trails in the foothills with minimal elevation gains and a LOT of miles on the grass and dirt trails alongside the Ralston Creek bike trail. Let me tell ya, I got pretty damned sick of that trail by the time race day rolled around.

I had a couple rough weeks in there where I was supposed to be running 55-60 miles and only got in around 40-45 but all in all it went well. Got a couple good training runs of about 20 miles and some nice weekends with 30 miles or more. The last two weeks went particularly well so I had some good confidence going into the "Death Race" that I could pull off my goal of 50 miles in less than 12 hours. As an added bonus, my wife Gina had decided to not only crew me but to enter and run a half marathon distance since she had planned on doing three of those this year anyway. So I would have some company for at least a little while.

A generous 8 o'clock start time meant we had plenty of time to get up and make the hour drive to Palmer Lake without having to stay overnight anywhere. We pulled in around around seven and got set up. Tents were going up all over the place by people planning on running/crewing/hanging out for the whole 24. I expected a cool, laid back vibe and that's exactly what we got. Most of the runners milled around casually, setting up their areas and exuding confidence.

Gina and I got our little spot right by the trail set up and at we were soon off and running. My general plan was to try to cover at least 20 laps of the .82 mile trail every four hours since I would need 61 laps to top the 50 mile mark. Gina was already altering her plan after I informed her that anything over 26.2 would make her an official ultra runner. She was planning on taking the occasional lap off wile I was planning on doing some walking every once in a while to try to save and much energy as possible. And boy, would I do some walking brothers and sisters.

The first sign of trouble was about four miles in when I could feel my quads were already a little sore. This made absolutely zero freaking sense since the loop is about and flat as it could be and I had no problems with my quads during training. I checked with Gina a few times to make sure we weren't going a lot faster than I thought (since I dislike the GPS she was wearing it). Nope, just a shade under 12 minute per mile pace, perfect. Logically there was no reason for the steadily worsening ache in the front of my thighs. But there it was.

By around mile twelve or fifteen (hard to remember when one is trotting around in circles) I was inexplicably in as much pain as I have ever been in while running. I had an especially worrisome pain running from my left hip all the way down to the inside of my knee.  I was soon reduced to an ugly shuffle/walk, and even that was difficult. It got bad enough at one point I was sitting in the dirt on the side of the trail trying in vain to stretch out. I could not understand what was happening. This was looking to be an embarrassingly short ass day! I was very close to what would amount in my mind as a DNF. A total flame-out. A ridiculous friggin' farce!

I will easily admit I was in a bit of a panic and the "Pauley" in me was starting to come out, which is a cute was of saying I was getting super pissed. I may not like following real detailed training plans and I imagine I do a pretty good job of making it appear like I have this totally laid back approach to my running, but make no mistake: I do not like to fail and I hate to lose. However, I was losing a mental battle with myself, already envisioning wasting months of training by slinking home humiliated from a 24 hour race with a measly twenty sad, pitiful miles or so.  The prospect of that looking more and more to be the likely result literally brought tears to my eyes.

Gina to the rescue! Even though she was surely tired of listening to me slowly work myself up into a tantrum of defeat she kept making suggestions until my negative, idiot mind could fend them off no longer. She also left me alone for a couple laps, which helped in two ways. For one, it forced me to quit audibly bitching to her and try to focus and relax. And secondly, I fell into conversation with an experienced ultra runner named Jamie that listened to the short version of my tale of woe and shrugged it off with a "shit happens during ultras!" type thing and gave me some kind words of encouragement. Soon after I just sat down for a good while, put some Hot Pepper Sha-Bang muscle rub on my traitorous quads and chilled out.

Somehow through this all I had found myself with about 24 laps (just short of 20 miles) in at the four hour mark, when we had to reverse our direction to clockwise. This was four laps more than the bare minimum I had planned on completing during that time. It was a nice buffer to have since I was now doing very little in the way of actual running, but I WAS feeling a bit better. Gina was in pursuit of her first ultra distance which she would need 34 laps to complete. She reached that mark right at the time I finished my 40th lap, about 2/3 of the way to my goal. I was so incredibly proud of her. Not only had she covered an ultra distance with not even close to proper training (one tough cookie!) but she had helped me salvage my wreckage of a race at the same time. She truly is the best!

Now I was on my own. I can't recall where I was time-wise at this point but I had lost my buffer and then some. I still had hope to cover 50 miles but it was not looking that good to be honest. I would be there until midnight walking the rest of this at 3 1/2 mph! I was not going to make Gina sit shivering in a lawn chair until then, waiting for my hobbling ass to stroll my way to my goal. But hey, as I stated in my last blog post, what would Gary Robbins do? So I got to business and started running. And holy Hell, wouldn't you know it? I actually felt pretty good! I could achieve a fairly comfortable shuffle.

I chatted with a few great people the rest of the way, sympathized internally when I saw others that were struggling like I had earlier, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I probably ran about 60% of the distance the rest of the way. Things got pretty rough with a few laps to go, I was getting a bit loopy and, excruciatingly, kept thinking I had fewer left than I had. Weirdly, I often thought I could hear somebody running up behind me when there was nobody there. I don't know if this was a crazy echo effect or an auditory hallucination and I never had the guts to ask any other runners if they were experiencing the same thing! I also saw the most beautiful star filled sky since I lived in the Midwest!. But I made it, sucking it up and running most of that final lap. I finished my 50 miles in about 13 hours and 15 minutes or so I guess, at that point I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the time at that point. I was just happy and sore and glad to be done.

Because it was run around one short loop and everybody's camp was right by the trail, this race was a great opportunity to observe and learn from other runner since you saw everybody over and over and over. I was surprised how often the top runners, those clearly gunning for 100 miles, took breaks. I assumed they would just make super quick pit stops and keep moving. But most seemed to be smartly pacing themselves, taking time to sit down (except Jaime, who incredibly had not yet sat down when I left!), cook something, change shoes, etc. Some also did a fair amount of walking as a way to try to recover a bit while on the move.

I do believe this is the most impressive bunch of athletes I've ever been around. Persistence and perseverance personified! Eleven of them completed 100 miles. Eleven! I did 50 miles, to some a unfathomable number to run in a day, but 48 people did more, including an 11-year-old girl that did 50.8 miles! Two siblings, one eleven and the other ten, completed 42.2 and 29.5 miles respectively. Two runners over sixty ran their age or over and a 71-year-old woman covered 53.3. It's absolutely incredible and inspiring what those people did that day and night. Gina and I are already penciling ourselves in next year if Claire's track schedule doesn't conflict with it.

Until next time...

More trail Magic at the Barkley Marathons

Those that know me know of my deep respect for and fascination with Gary Cantrell's trail racing masterpiece, The Barkley Marathons, This years version did nothing but enhance my love affair with this race. The leaders pretty much from the get-go were local guy John Kelly and Canadian  ultra-runner Gary Robbins. Both men had made it into the fifth loop in 2016 (along with eventual finisher Jared Campbell) but could not complete the race. Kelly memorably took a nap (passing out basically) on the ground just up the trail after starting the final loop before continuing on but eventually being defeated by The Barkley. Robbins ended up hitching a ride back to camp to face the bugler.

Both were favorites, if there is such a thing in a race that has known only fourteen finishers, to defeat the trail in the 2017 version this past weekend. They stuck together for the most part through the first four loops until race rules forced them to go in opposite directions for the fifth and final loop, a good amount of which was going to be run in the dark and in rainy, foggy conditions. It was going to take a hell of an effort for either or both to finish.

Kelly did prevail with about 30 minutes to spare under the 60 hour cutoff, conquering the Barkley beast on his third attempt. The dude who used to hike with his family as a kid on the trails of Frozen Head had become just the fifteenth finisher of the famed Barkley marathons. An even better story was the non-finish of Robbins, however. The bearded Canadian's race ended in heartbreaking fashion when he touched the yellow gate six seconds too late and from the wrong direction. He had gotten his pages from all the books on the loop but then lost his bearings and took the wrong route back to the finish, disqualifying him even if he had made it back under 60 hours.

Watching the video of Robbins' finish and the immediate aftermath is something so simultaneously gut-wrenching and wonderful, it's difficult to process. Robbins is so clearly, utterly physically and emotionally wrecked you just want to reach into the computer somehow and hug the guy. Also, despite outwardly taking a gleeful satisfaction in watching runners fail miserably at his event, director Laz (Gary) is visibly moved by Robbins effort and his coming up just short of an official finish. The embrace the two share over the famed gate says everything without anyone having to say a thing.

Robbins' herculean effort at the 2017 Barkley is simply one of the most inspirational things I've ever heard of or seen. That guy laid everything on the line in a way that almost none of us ever will, for anything, ever. And to come that close to doing something that is bordering on impossible and have it ripped away because of one costly mistake, and then to handle it with so much class and dignity... well let's just say it's incredibly emotional to witness on video, I can't imagine what it was like for those that were there in person. In my opinion Gary Robbins did something amazingly heroic for 60 hours and 6 seconds and it doesn't matter that he is listed as a DNF on the results. He struck a chord with a lot of people on April Fools weekend 2017 and he's got a fan for life in me.

I am about a week and a half out from the 24 Hours of Palmer Lake Fun Run, and frankly I've been pretty burned out with the training lately. I haven't gotten the planned mileage in the last couple of weeks and mentally I haven't been too strong lately. I am still going for my planned 50 miles and hoping to get that in within twelve hours. And when things get rough on that Saturday and I want to quit, I am going to ask myself, "What would Gary Robbins do?"

And then I'll just keep going.

Training, this years races, and other random stuff...

Haven't really posted much goings on since the fall, so here goes!

Cooper had a successful XC season for Monmouth, capped off by finishing fourth at his conference meet. The team shocked the conference with a second place finish. Considering in 2015 they didn't even have enough healthy runners to SCORE at conference this is an amazing turnaround. Out of the top 7 Coop in the only Junior, the rest being Freshman and Sophomores. Coop also set a Pr in the 5k last week with a 15:39, nabbing a third place finish at the Midwest Conference Indoor Championships. He also scored in the DMR and 3k, heping the Monmouth men to a mind-boggling 18th straight Indoor crown!

Claire and the rest of the Arvada West Wildcats had a great finish to their XC campaign, also. Both the girls and boys teams won the Jeffco Conference 5A Championship and followed that up with first place finishes the next weekend at Regionals. Colorado State saw the boys finish 4th in 5A and the girls 5th. Those state finished were good enough to get an invite to the Nike Cross Regionals in Casa Grande, Arizona. Times were on the slow side because of an unfortunately hot and windy day, but it was a great experience. Gina, Marc (Claire's teammate Katie's dad, and I ran in the "citizens" race early that morning. It was quite a kick to run the course that Casey Clinger and Brie Oakley, both the eventual Nike national champs, would run (much, much faster than we did of course) later in the day. Also got a look at 8th grade phenom Grace Ping, who advanced to nationals and finished 6th there.

Actually, that trip to Arizona ended a running streak at 41 days of running at least three miles. I've never actually tracked that sort of thing before but with the possible exception of my marathon training I doubt I have ever run more than 10-14 days in a row before. I made up my mind to try to run every day this winter and I gotta say, it's made me a bit of a believer. I've always been on the side of a couple rest or cross training days a week but I felt like really putting together a super solid base of training this winter.

I have a tentative plan for racing this year. In April I am planning on running 24 Hours of Palmer Lake Fun Run in Monument, Colorado. The race name is pretty self explanatory: a 24 hour race around Palmer Lake. You run the .8 mile loop as many times as you can for 24 hours at an elevation over 7.000 feet. For some reason this sounds fun to me. Gina, on the other hand, is not quite as overjoyed about the prospect of crewing me for this event! After that I am leaning toward doing my second Tommyknocker 12 Hour in May (last year it was a Fall race, so I am hoping for cooler weather this time around) or perhaps a trail marathon up near South Park. It all depends on what scheduling conflicts I may have or not have with track and Coop coming home from school.

After that I am thinking I am going to ease back on the running during the hotter summer months and tackle some 14ers. Coop, Brandon, and I have tentative plans to take on Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado, sometime this summer. I also want to do Grays and/or Torreys again, this time during a day when I can actually see some of the views! There is a 14er route near Leadville where you can bag four peaks in one shot that is also calling my name.

I might take on some sort of 50k trail race or a road (eewwww) half or marathon late in the Fall. I have some vague notions about running (more like power hiking) the Pikes Peak Ascent or Marathon in 2018 but I need a qualifier race to enter. We'll see. I also have notions about trying to get into The Barkley Fall Classic in '18. That is pretty much my big dream race at this point. It's the one I have got to try before I quit running. Hoping to avoid the big DNF at that one and get a finisher medal draped over my neck by Laz himself! I've definitely got access to enough vertical close to home to get trained for the Fall Classic.

Here is a super impressive feat: Ultra-marathoner Micheal Wardian won the World Marathon Challenge recently, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. and averaged just a shead of 2:45 doing it. Read more about this miraculous achievement here. Retired elite marathoner Ryan Hall also completed it, the last marathons he will ever run.

Identity As A Runner

Today Facebook, thoughtful as ever, brought up my memories, which as most of you know is a regurgitation of your old posts, friends made, etc. on that day in years past. Yeah, I'm being a bit of a smart aleck about it but it is actually pretty interesting many times and this is one of those times.

Anyway, according to the sluggish media giant allI posted five years ago this day that while on a walk I had jogged up a few hills. If you don't know me well or were not aware, on the day before thanksgiving of 2011 I suffered a neck injury, a bulging disk that pinched a nerve. It was a freakish thing, starting that day with a sharp pain while bending over to pick up a paper I had dropped on the floor and yawning at the same time. By the end of that evening I was in severe pain at an ER and I spent two weeks on my back doped to the gills. It wasn't until this day five years ago that I began cautiously returning to running.

The reason I bring this up is that was the first time I had ever been totally out of commission running-wise since I began hitting the roads a few years earlier. I remember being pretty sure I was done running for a long time, maybe for good. I had pain every time I walked, hit a bump while driving, anything that caused the least little bouncing of my body. Particularly scary was when I tried to put a gallon of milk in the fridge with my left arm only to find I could not lift it high enough to get it onto the shelf. Hard to imagine doing much physically when you cannot arm curl a gallon of liquid a few inches!

Worse than the physical toll of that injury, though, was the mental part of having running suddenly ripped away from my life. I won't lie. I was seriously depressed for a few weeks there. I felt a real loss, almost as if a loved one had passed away. My drug cocktail probably wasn't helping things in that regard either, but I was shocked how much it was effecting me mentally. I felt similarly later on when I had to resign my coaching positions to move to Colorado. In both cases I really couldn't believe how difficult it was for me to rally and get through it emotionally.

As time goes on however I am coming to realize that it really only not being able to run (or coach) that was truly bothering me, though that was definitely part of it. Mostly it was because my identity as a runner (and later as as running coach) wad gone or in jeopardy of being gone. At the time of my neck injury I was living in tiny Lanark, Illinois, a town the size of which meant that everybody knows everybody else. Me and my family were a big part of the running community in the town. My wife and I had both run a marathon, I had started running some longer trail races and my son was making a name for himself in the area as a distance runner.

Suddenly I was questioning myself big time. If I could not run, if i wasn't that dude everybody in town always saw running around all the time, then who was I? I had a run of the mill, ordinary job. I didn't really "do" much, at least in my mind, except run. I was a runner. And the worst part was until i couldn't do it anymore, I hadn't even been introspective enough to realize how much of my identity was tied up with running. I was completely blindsided by the entire experience.

Eventually and gradually, with a lot of help from my chiropractor, traction, and time, my neck got better and I did return to running as before. And I think I learned quite a lot from the entire ordeal. When I had to give up coaching a few years later, and also had my running seriously curtailed by a bout of ulcerative colitis just before that, I like to think I handled it better. Maybe I did. Maybe not. What would happen right now if I faced another long stretch of time when I couldn't run? Or worse yet, couldn't run at all anymore? I can't say for sure.

Right now I am running more than ever. I recently had a streak of 41 days straight broken only because of a travel day to the Nike Cross Regionals to watch my daughter and her team. Last fall I ran my first ultra. From the outside it would appear that I am loving running more than ever and it's true. I am. It's kind of hard not to when you live fifteen minutes from their Rocky Mountains foothills! But I know that in part it's also because I am a small fish in a small pond and just trotting out some miles a few times a week just doesn't feel like it cuts it.

And that's ok.

Whew! Well that's enough off that!

"Running should be free, man."
Caballo Blanco