Mount Doug 11 km Gutbuster

July 26, 2009

This was my last Gutbuster of the season as I will miss the Mount Washington race because Sonja and I will be in Norway for two weeks doing some traveling with Todd and Kim. We have actually been having a summer here so I knew this race was going to be a pretty hot one. The course summits Mount Doug 2 times and Little Mount Doug once. While most of the course forested, there are significant exposed portions, many of them on the climbs where overheating is the most likely.

I had taken my normal one day off before the race and had taken it a bit easier during the week. I race way too often to do proper tapers, but I do like to go into races with relatively fresh legs (particularly one with significant climbing involved). Since I was pretty well rested I expected to have a decent race unless the heat got to me too much. I've suffered in the heat in past years, but more recently it seems I have been able to take it better.

While the field was fairly small for this race, there was still fairly deep talent pool. Jason Loutitt was in attendance again and ended up taking off even sooner than at Royal Roads. He was out of sight even before the main start of the first climb. Kelly Guest was also running, but he had just finished a hard 1.5 hour cycle to the start line so was not going as fast as he normally would. The first climb up Whittaker and Irvine Trails is challenging and was hot near the top. I felt reasonable on the climb and managed to make the summit in 3rd place just behind Kelly.

We descended from the lookout on a trail composed mainly of bedrock. It is quite technical, but I feel pretty comfortable flying down it when it is dry. A fall here could really hurt though so you have to be extra vigilant. I managed to pass Kelly and was just ahead of Shelby Drope by the bottom of the decent. The next slightly uphill segment to the base of Little Mount Doug is also technical with a lot of rocks and roots. I have run it many times before with no issues, but this time I caught my toe on something and found myself careening off the trail right into a large patch of blackberry bushes. I uttered some sort of profanity and I extracted myself and got back onto the trail just ahead of Shelby. Luckily, It was a minor incident that only cost me a couple of seconds and left me with a few minor scratches.

After a short, but intense climb to the top of Little Mount Doug we were treated to quite gnarly decent complete with a good dose of loose rock and dirt. After this, I was expecting the course to descend all the way Mercer Trail as it did last year, but the course had been changed and that section short cut. Unfortunately, with my head down and my mind expecting to follow the same route, I completely missed the turnoff. I am generally competent with navigation during trail races, but I have screwed up a few times in the past. It is never fun to work that hard and then blow it all by not paying attention, but it a reality of trail races sometimes. I knew I had made a mistake before too long as I didn't see any course flagging, but since I didn't know exactly how far back the cutoff was and I knew I would get back onto the course before too long, I continued on. Unfortunately for them, Shelby and Kelly followed me. I apologized as it sucks to be led astray even if they also missed the turnoff.

The blunder cost us six positions which was of course discouraging. I decided not to give up though and challenged myself to see how many positions I could earn back. One the first part of the final climb I reeled in Ben Kingstone and Mark Nelson and managed to get some more time on Shelby. Kelly, however, had moved ahead and gained a bit of time on me. I also caught up to Lowell Rockliffe, but he managed to hang in strong during the final climb. It hurt a lot, but we ended up pulling almost even with Nick Walker and Kelly. The final decent is yet again technical with loose dirt and I again moved well managing to get ahead of all three. The final couple of kilometers is fairly flat, however, so I wasn't sure I was going to be able to hold out against the speed of Kelly and Nick. I was feeling really good though and I cranked the strides out. Nick nearly caught me near the finish though, but I managed to stay ahead by 2 seconds.

I finished forth in 46:28. Based on the times of Shawn Nelson (who ran very well) and Michael Liedtke I would have most likely ended up in 2nd place had it not been for my navigational blunder. Kind of annoying, but at least my fitness felt strong. In the typical pattern, Jason blew the field apart, winning in under 42 minutes. My time was actually over 2 minutes faster than last year even with my mistake, but because the course was a bit shorter it was difficult to judge if I was actually moving faster or not. Final results are here. My next race will probably not be until 5 Peaks Butzen Lake on September 19, so I will actually have nearly two months break - this may well be my longest break since 2006.

Half Monty and Hurricane Ridge

July 18-19, 2009

This is a quick report from last weekend. On Saturday, I took place in the 5th running of the Full/Half Monty Trail Race. This is a very low key Club Fat Ass event. The event takes place at Gowlland-Tod Provincial Park starting at the McKenzie Bight entrance and the course follows the main trail south through the park, going over Jocelyn and Homes Peaks. The course turns around at Cabeb Pike and traces the same course back to McKenzie Bight. Total distance is close to 25km round trip and includes a good amount of climbing and lots of moderate difficultly technical terrain all on single track. For those who like trail running, this is a really great place to run. The Half Monty does one out and back, the Full does it twice to make 50km.

I had run this exact course a couple of times in the past and this time I just wanted to run it as a race to see what time I could get. So far the event has not attracted any elite level runners so the course records of around 2:30 was readily attainable. The conditions were hot and I suffered a bit on the way up to Jocelyn Peak although I was still moving pretty well. I managed to recover somewhat on my day down to Cabeb Pike and I cooled my self down with water, which the race organizer, Carlos Castillo, was kind enough to leave at the turn around. I felt good on the way back, but on the final climb back up to Jocelyn, it was tough to keep the legs moving. I was able to run all of the course though which I was happy about. Despite some fatigue in the last few km, I moved well to the finish, posting a time of 1:56:57 which I quite please with as it was over 2min faster than my previous best time. It was too bad there were not a few more runners out as that would have made the event a bit more exiting, but I think everyone enjoyed the challenging terrain and great views. Carlos has a short write up here.

On Sunday, Sonja and I got up at 5am to join over 30 other Prairie Inn Harriers on a running trip over to Hurricane Ridge on the Washington Olympic Peninsula. The main run too place between Deer Park and Observation Point (about 12km) . Some people (including myself) also added another hour+ on some other trails. The vista were spectacular as is evidenced by these photos.


You can see the rest of my photos here. I spent most of my time running with Jeff Hunt who kept moving well really well for the entire day. Jeff has a great write up on his blog so please have a look there if you are interested in more details about our trip. I didn't know how the legs would hold out after the 2 hours of punishment I gave them the day before, but they felt pretty decent. Fatigue did catch up to me after about 1.5 hours though and the final climb that Jeff and I did was pretty tough. After a quick stop at Hurricane Ridge itself, we returned to Port Angeles for a late lunch/early dinner before heading back to Victoria. Thanks to Bob Reid for organizing the event - it would not have happened without him! All in all it was a great running weekend for me, with nearly 50km of challenging trail running completed.

Royal Roads 13km Gutbuster

July 12, 2009

Royal Roads is probably the easiest of the 5 Gutbuster races as it does not have as many sustained climbs as the other courses and less technical terrain. However, this is not to say that it is easy as it still includes a ton of small climbs (some of them very steep). This year, Royal Roads Running club redesigned the course making it longer and adding even more hills. The official distance was 13.8km and although I never really trust measurements given for trail races, it was about 2km longer than last year.

My last race was the Kusam Klimb which felt like quite some time ago (although it really was only 3 weeks ago). My training has been steady, but not intense in the last few months. I didn't expect anything amazing from this race, but hoped to still put in a respectable performance. How I would place would be mostly dependent on who else showed up. The Gutbuster races usually seem to attract a good number of talented runners and I expected nothing less for this race. I spotted Jason Loutitt on the way to the start line so knew who was likely to take the race.

The legs felt pretty good during the warm up I did with Sonja so that was an encouraging sign. For the first time in quite a while, I decided to wear my heart rate strap for the race. I didn't expect to really use it to pace myself, just more for interest sake to see what kind of heart rate I can sustain for an hour.

Once the race was underway Jason stayed with the lead pack all of about 300 meters before accelerating away. I could have tried to match him, but not without killing myself after a km or two. The course included a large number of small, but steep climbs, the first being only a few hundred meters in. Shortly after the climb, Jason quickly disappeared and wasn't seen again.

I was working hard, but feeling in control. During the first couple of kilometers I took a look at my heart rate and was surprised to see it edge over 170 on one of the climbs. Since my maximum heart rate is about 175, anything over 170 is getting into a range that I can not sustain for very long. Despite the fact that I felt in control, I did need to be careful not to push too hard so soon. I took it down just a notch, hoping I could maintain that effort for the remainder of the race.

I was in second place behind Jason for the first few kilometers. However, Shelby Drope and Shawn Nelson were not far behind and slowly pulled ahead of me. Knowing there was still a lot of racing left, I choose not to pace them and instead kept myself moving at a manageable effort that I thought I could hold for the remainder of the race. They would either have enough endurance to push to the end ahead of me or I would reel them in the second half of the course. I was a bit surprised at both their speeds. Shawn is a talented runner, but I have generally been a bit faster. I've seen Shelby at a few Island Race Series races and he tended to go out pretty fast and then fade somewhat. His fitness seems to be improving fast though and he held strong in 3rd place just in front of me until the half way point (Shawn was in 2nd).

The short course veers off to the finish line at the half way point. I had assumed that Shelby was doing the long course, but when I didn't seem him after the courses diverged I realized that he was only doing the short (which he solidly won). Nick Walker was close on my tail at this point as I expected he would be. He tends to start fairly conservatively and then speed up considerably on the later parts of races. I was holding steady, but he was speeding up. We ended up running a few kilometers of single track together before hitting some wider trails where he was able to use his greater speed to pull ahead.

Unfortunately for Shawn, he was having some sort of side ache problem and Nick and I passed him a after the halfway point and it looks like he had to pull out. It was too bad for him as it looked like he was having a great race. While I couldn't match Nick's speed once the trails opened up, I was still feeling pretty decent and continued to move ahead at a good rate. Most of the additional distance in the course this year was made up in a large loop up past a gravel pit and out toward the the edge of the University grounds. While not particularly difficult, this section drug on longer than expected. Then on the return we had to climb up the side of the gravel pit. Its not a big climb by any means, but was steep and composed of loose gravel which made running up it quite a challenge.

After some more downhill we moved onto the last major climb. Nick had perhaps a 45 second lead on me at this point. I didn't expect to catch him, but still kept the pressure up to make sure that I maintained my position. Most of the final 2km were on gravel road with some little diversions onto single track. The final run to the finish is on an uphill grade just to make sure everyone had enough climbing on the day! It is a good thing that I kept my pace up as Michael Liedtke was moving fast. The final results say he was only 4 seconds back, but the timing must have been off by a bit. I estimate that he was actually 10-15 seconds back. Not that time really matters much in a trail race anyway.

I crossed the line in 1:00:38 in 3rd place, about a minute behind Nick and a full 6 minutes behind Jason who must of flown on his broom to post such a smoking fast time. Harrier, Andrew Pape-Salmon ran strongly to a well deserved 7th place. Care Wakely won the woman division in 1:10:50, just 5 sec ahead of 2nd place. Overall, I was happy with my race and felt like I held together well for the entire distance. My time was about 9 min slower than last year, but I feel this is sole result of the increased length. My average heart rate ended up being 163 (93%) and it peaked out at 173 (99%). Final results are here. for the Mount Doug I hope to see a good crowd out on July 26thGutbuster - probably my favorite race in the series.

Hornby Island #2

Here are a few more videos (I had to split them to get them to load).

Picking up the pace on Mr. Toads Wild Ride Trail #1



#2



On "No Horses" #1



#2



Gary Behind the camera on "The Way" #1


#2

That should be enough running video to bore everyone!

Here are a few photos as well.

Helliwell Provincial Park


Sunset


Evening Light


Mt Geoffrey

Hornby Island

July 4-5, 2009

If you only read my blog you may get the sense that I do nothing but race. For the first time, here is a non race related post. Sonja and I went to Hornby Island last weekend. Horby has some pretty interesting topography and vegetation variations. More than 30% of the island is protected and these areas boast some great running and mountain biking trails. We would do a bit of both. Fellow Harrier, Gary Duncan was good enough to host us and show us the best trails while we were there. Thanks Gary!

For the first time, I also played around with taking some video while running. If you have ever tried to do this while on a trail (especially somewhat technical ones) you will know that it is challenging. Trying to hold the camera still while keeping the runner in front in the frame and also paying attention to your footing adds a bit of difficulty. They are not going to win any video contest, but hopefully will be somewhat interesting. It is proving difficult to upload some of the larger videos so I'll post some now and more later (with some photos as well).

Sonja, Gary and I (taking the video) running in Helliwell Provincial Park

Running on the High Salal to Halliwell trail just outside Helliwell Provincial Park

More fun on the High Salal with Gary holding the camera



Sonja coming down Mr Toad's Wild Ride trail near Mt. Geoffrey



Sonja on "The Way"

Kusam Klimb

June 20, 2009

With a catch phrase of "Are you Tough Enough?" Kusam Klimb markets itself as an epic endurance event. With 1500 meters of elevation gain in 5.5km and some very challenging terrain, it lives up to its billing. It has even been listed by elite trail runner Dale Reicheneder (scroll down about half way) as the toughest race he has ever done. While I don't consider it to be quite as insane as Dale describes, if you have never done it yourself, mere descriptions don't convey the length and grade of the ascent. You can also read a longer article by Sarah Seads here.

This was my third trip to Kusam (located near Sayward on the North East coast of Vancouver Island) in as many years and I have been fortunate enough to come cross the finish line first both times. In 2008, I had one of the best races of my career, where everything went right and I ended up setting a new course record of 2:23:04. Since I had such an amazing race last year, I knew bettering my time this year would not be easy. In addition, I found out that Adam Campbell was registered for the race and Jason Terauchi-Loutitt might make a last minute appearance. Even though I had prior knowledge of the course, I knew that would probably have to run the race of my life to have a chance of winning with those two on the starting line.

I traveled up the night before with Sonja, Garth Campbell, and Joanne Rosen and stayed in a cabin close to the race start. Unfortunately, I had been feeling a little unwell that day and suspected that some sort of sickness was on the way. I just hoped that it would hold off long enough to allow me to race in reasonable condition. My sleep that night was terrible, which never helps. I tossed and turned all night and contemplated not starting the race at all if I woke up feeling totally exhausted and sick. I don't like to under perform I didn't want to start a race where I thought I couldn't muster a decent performance. Especially one that I won twice before.

Six o'clock finally came I while I didn't feel great, I felt good enough to give it a go. I just hoped that once the climb began, I wouldn't fall apart! The race starts with a nice 2.2km on the paved road so in my mind, no warm up was required. I'd save all my energy for later in the race. I hadn't spotted Adam, Jason, or any other top talent that I recognized. As we began to gather for the start, I still didn't see them I began to think that I may have gotten lucky. I like a good challenge and had a I been feeling 100% I would have liked to see how I could have done against better runners on this unique course. However, I also like winning so I'll have to admit that wasn't too disappointed when they didn't make an appearance. Unlike last year, when there was a good sized pack to run with on the first road section, this year I found myself on my own within just a few hundred meters of the start line. A couple of guys with good sized backpacks swaying side to side did make an initial dash for it, but soon fell back.

Fortunately, I continued to feel better than expected and moved ahead of the group in a relaxed, but sustained pace. By the time I hit the single track, I couldn't see any one else. In my mind, the start of the climb was the final test to see if I could be able to hold it together for the rest of the race. If things felt fine in the first 5-10 minutes, I figured I could pull it off. I wouldn't be breaking my time from last year, but I could hopefully still take the win and make it a 3-peat. Thankfully, the legs felt pretty good although my calves did start to tighten up quickly. Fortunately, after about 15 min they loosened up and I was able to climb in relative comfort (not that Kusam and comfort really go together).

I reached the first checkpoint (3.7 km @ 390m elevation) at 23:52. After this checkpoint, the already steep climb starts to go vertical. While this is a running race, during the climb, there is very little running involved. It is a one long power hike punctuated by a few places where a jog is possible (if your legs allow it). Up and up and up it goes, with some rocky sections where you need to pull yourself up with ropes and some nice views if you take the time! It is often better just to put your head down and climb. Looking up can leave you feeling defeated when all you see if more is the same insanity.

In the past two years since I have done the race, the course starts to hit snow near the top, but this year due to warm weather, pretty much all the snow was gone. This generally made for easier climbing as you didn't have to worry about slipping around on the snow. There is a small decent into a alpine lake followed by a final climb to the the col (pass), the highest point in the course (1482m). It took me 1:00:15 to make the 4km from checkpoint #1 to the pass. It is hard to imagine doing 15 min kilometers and thinking the are hard, but that is the reality of Kusam. This was actually about 1 min faster than last year which was quite surprising to me.

My legs had held together pretty well, but they were still pretty toast by the top. I was ready for the downhill, but without the snow I was used to I didn't know what to expect. Previously, I'd just run down hill slamming my heels into the snow and forgoing the rope lines that had been placed to aid racers in their descents. This year, it ended up being a bit harder for me as running down such a steep (and I do mean steep) hill without snow would likely have led me to hospital. This time, I opted to use the lines as a safety and ran straight down hill (gloves are a must). I think this method was a bit slower, but I still made reasonable time. Once the steepest decent was over, we were treated with some great downhill technical single track that I had never seen before. This is a cool thing about Kusam, each year the race can be different depending on snow pack and rainfall. The single track didn't last long, but it was good fun.

I reached the safety checkpoint at the end of the single track 12:06 after the summit and headed onto a steady decent onto an old road trail in a clear cut. This trail is relatively uneventful save for several good sized creek crossings where keeping the feet dry is not an option. After a couple of km, I passed checkpoint #3 and the course soon moved onto a 5km section of gradual downhill gravel road. While I would still prefer to run on trails, this road is actually not bad, as the gradual downhill makes running fast on tired legs seem fairly effortless. After passing checkpoint #4 in 28:48, there was 3km of slightly downhill overgrown logging road which is pretty easy except for where the road has been cut to allow streams to cross (and there a more than a few of these dippsy doodles). It took me 12:11 to traverse the logging road and a short bit on single track before being treated to another creek crossing with one rude little climb to reach the final checkpoint. During the decent I was feeling reasonable and up to reaching the final checkpoint I thought that I may have had a chance to better my 2008 time. However, with 2.5km to go and under 6 min to do it, it wasn't going to happen (it took 9:41). Still, I continued to push right to the finish coming across in 2:26:51, winning the day and posting the 2nd best time on the course.

Second place would go to 2006 Kusam winner, Rob Fontaine coming in at 2:36:23. Joanne ran an amazing race, wining the woman's division in 2:53:25 and setting a new course record along the way. Not bad for someone who only decided to come 2 days out! The true "Toughest" award certainly has to go to Garth though, who was solidly in 3rd place with only 3km to go when he tripped and fell hard onto his right arm, dislocating his shoulder. Despite being in great pain, he managed and hobble to the finish line, only loosing one position. Sonja also raced well, taking about 12 min off of last years time. Most people would consider doing Kusam once a year enough, but how about twice in a row? For Randy Duncan it was just a bit of training for the Leadville Trail 100 Mile Ultra. He pocketed the first go in a respectable 3:22:08 and headed out for another grueling lap (passing some of those still doing the first one I might add). Final results are unfortunately no longer available.

North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon - Bellingham, WA

June 6, 2009

I hadn't heard of this race until a few months ago when my uncle, who lives in Seattle, forwarded me the info. The course description sounded pretty awesome advertising some great technical single track and moderate to hard climbing. The timing also worked well being on the way back from a family vacation in northern Idaho.

For a trail event, this was a pretty big one with about 600 participants in four events (10k, Half Marathon, 50k, and 50 Mile). The 50 Mile event was the marquee event with over $2,000 in prize money for the top 3 men and woman. In addition, the overall male and female winner receive a free entry into the Endurance Challenge Championship in San Francisco where a prize of $10,000 is up for grabs. Sadly, no cash prizes were available for any of the other distances although there was still some pretty decent swag awarded.

This was probably the best organized running race that I have ever attend. Each distance had its own participant guide with course descriptions, maps, profiles, directions to the start, pace charts, participant info, etc. The staging area itself was well set up with a number of sponsor booths, registration and bag drop, food tent, and information. Registration although steep at about $80 Canadian, also included North Face technical shirt and socks, and reusable drawstring bag which. Dean Karnazes, ultra running legend, was also in attendance giving out the awards. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the whole setup.

Leading out the pack. Photo Credit: Sam Ruljancich

In terms of competition, I really didn't know what to expect for this race as I had no idea what the trail running scene was south of the border. Given the fairly high caliber look of the event, I did expect at least a few faster runners to be out. As we gathered near the start line in the minutes before the race I found it strange that no one wanted to actually line up under the arch. This was a race wasn't it? I have never seem a more bashful group of runners in my life!

Eventually, seconds before the start they finally moved forward and we were off. It was a pretty slow start, no one burned out front and I soon found myself in the lead. One guy did speed up and run beside me for a bit during the first 2 Mile loop that brought us out on some single track and then back around the start area again, but he fell back on some of the early climbs. Interestingly, I caught up to and passed a guy who said he was just out for a run. It turns out he ended up running the whole course and had be been registered, would have come in third.

The little loop was fun and I was hoping for more single track. Soon though, we were running on gravel roads. OK, I thought, I can handle this, more trails will be coming soon. I thought I had a good lead on the second place guy, Jacob Stout, but just before a steep ascent up a power line right-of-way, I realized he was just behind me. I was a little worried at this point because it looked like he was pushing hard. If he kept it up, I wasn't sure I could match his pace. It didn't help that as I started the climb, I began to hurt. My stomach was a bit upset and I just wasn't at 100%. Luckily, climbing probably wasn't Jacob's forte as I still gained on him even in my weakened state.

The climb was followed by a road decent. I was feeling better and moving well, but Jacob continued to power ahead and eventually caught up to me. We ran together for perhaps 2 Miles and it was good to have someone to help push me. When soon moved onto some single track for another climb and I fortunately felt better than the last climb and was able to make a up fair amount of ground. By the time I reached the top (and the highest point in the course) and popped back onto a gravel road, he was out of sight. Despite having a comfortable lead, I kept the pressure on myself up. I didn't want him to get the chance to see me again as that could give him a second wind.

I passed and aid #2 station and began a 4 Mile out and back section (unfortunately again on an old road). At this point, I started to see many of the participants from the 50k who also did this section and then after the turn around I saw who was behind me for the first time. I had perhaps a minute on Jacob at this point and 3rd place was another 2 or so more minutes back. It was now my race to lose. The reminder of the race was mostly down hill with another Mile of road followed by some nice technical trail leading into the finish. This brief bit of trail was what I had hoped the whole course would be composed of. I crossed the line in 1:32:32, a decent time for an off road half marathon assuming the distance was fairly accurate.

The top 3 finishers (myself, Jacob Stout, and Graham Thomas) with Dean Karnazes.
Photo Credit: Sam Ruljancich

The top woman came in 21st overall in 1:52:15 and Sonja ran to a strong 5th place finish in the woman's division. Results are here. As a bonus, the announcer even pronounced my last name correctly! I was happy with the win, but was disappointed with the course which was not near as interesting as advertised. I'm thinking that the 50 Mile racers probably got the prime course. Perhaps I will have to try it in a future year.