Climbs and Crossings

I've never actually written a year end recap post because I'm usually writing about stuff all year long so why be redundant. THIS year, however, I've been such a slacker at writing and racing that this will be brand new information. If anyone is still here. I had a kick ass 50k in March followed up with a crappy attempt at my second ever 50 miler in April, and that's pretty much where we left off. Let's address that and get it out of the way. Here's what my Lake Sonoma race report should have said: I can come up with excuses that sound reasonable as to why I dropped, but in reality my head wasn't in it. When I needed mental strength to push through, it wasn't there. That's it. I moped the rest of the spring and spent most of the summer trying to shake it off.  ANYWAY...on to summer. Summer was great. My birthday is in July, and somehow my birthday celebration has gone from the actual day, to a week, to a month to...well it started in June this ...

 Race morning, when I had no clue it was going to be a crap day.  Something went wrong. Something went really wrong because I had no legs to run on. I kept waiting for them to warm up, loosen up, wake up...but they felt heavy and fatigued. My quads burned on the rolling singletrack, and it wasn't long before I was walking runnable trail. My mantra became "there are still so many miles in front of me" which is maybe the first time that's ever been a comforting thought in a race. It meant I had plenty of time to work through this. It would pass. My legs would show up, just be patient.  About mile 10 I gave up on waiting for my legs to show up. If this was the hand I'd been dealt then it was time to face it and readjust. Forget a PR. I ran into Warm Springs at mile 11.6 and heard someone say my name.  Hey, it's Alvin! This guy is always smiling. I wished him a good race and hung out a few minutes longer to eat and regroup. Leaving the aid station ...

In spring of 2013 I ran Way Too Cool, a 50k with under 5,000 ft in elevation gain in 6:39:34. In spring of 2014 I ran it in 6:39:28...six seconds faster. How dumb is that. What had I actually been doing with my life to make zero progress in the time span of a year.  This past December of 2014 I ran The North Face Endurance Challenge, a more challenging 50k course in the Marin Headlands with about 7,000 ft in elevation gain with a goal time of 7 hours. I finished feeling good in 7:00:40.  I have one goal for 2015. I want to train smarter and run faster. Rather than do the Way Too Cool 50k/American River 50m NorCal spring combo this year, I got into the Lake Sonoma 50 miler, and the Marin Ultra Challenge fell during the right weekend in my training plan.  I was shooting for six and a half hours. It would be a 50k PR, and 30 minutes faster than I had run three months previously out on these trails. I wanted out of whatever rut my running had ...

Here's the idea: You pay actual money to run around in a circle for either 6, 12, or 24 hours. This is how you choose to spend your New Year's Eve.  That's it. That's the course. Just keep turning right until midnight.  Each time you complete a lap, you pass under the finish arch, that is never actually the finish line, and over a timing mat that tracks the number of laps you've done and displays it on a screen. This should actually say, "KEEP GOING FOR MORE HOURS" You're looking at the same people lap after lap. It's the Golden Gate Bridge over and over again. You're not actually getting anywhere.  What is the point of what we are doing. That question is exactly why I love this race.  Here are hundreds of people, lap after lap, living entirely inside their own heads for hours and hours, each with a different answer to that question.  Last year I ran because I just wanted to find out if I could do it. I wan...