2010 Leadville Trail 100 Race Report

Me at the base of Hope Pass

2010 Leadville Trail 100 Race Report

In the fall of 2009 my coach, Jack Pilla, sent me an email saying that he and his friend Joe Carrara were going to do Leadville and that I needed to sign up. My immediate first reaction and response back to him was, "no thanks". I have done only two 100 mile races, and they were the same race, the Vermont 100. While I was gaining experience running I really didn't feel ready to tackle one of the toughest races in the country.

At face value, Leadville really doesn't look very hard. The elevation gain/loss is about the same as Vermont (aprox. 15,000) and a lot of it is runable. The race has two features that increase it's difficulty significantly. The first is that is starts at an elevation of 10,200 feet. The second is Hope Pass. Leadville is an out and back course, and the pass starts at around mile 41 and ends at mile 47. At the base of the climb the elevation is at the races lowest point, 9200 ft. At the summit it is 12,600 ft. Being an out and back course, you just barely recover at mile 50 before having to turn around and go back over it again for miles 53 to 59. And on the return trip you are heading up the steeper side. I'll get back to that later.

Elevation Chart

After reading many race reports and learning more about the race I signed up. That was Feb. 2, 2010. That meant that I had about 7 months to train and get ready.

In June I decided at the last minute to attend the training camp. I flew out on a Friday. I landed in Denver and drove the two hours to Leadville. Over the span of three days the camp covers about 40 miles of the course, showing the attendees about 80% of the course. After arriving I immediately noticed that I had a low grade headache and felt stoned. I was prepared for it and drank lots of water as recommended. It helped a lot. Naturally I did what any Ultra runner would do and went for a short run. I only went 4 miles, but was surprised to find that the elevation really didn't seem to affect me that much. So far so good!

The next day on Saturday the group of about 100 runners met for breakfast then we were bussed to the May Queen Aid station, which is mile 13.5 during the race. We ran about 24.5 miles of the course to the Twin Lakes Aid Station. It was a beautiful run which I did in about 4:45. Again, the elevation didn't affect me, but I was alarmed at how fast I became dehydrated. I drank at least double what I normally do but I still got behind on my fluid consumption. I made a mental note of it for the upcoming race.

The next day we again met for breakfast and were bussed to a campground near the beginning of Hope Pass. The route was a little bit different that what it would be on race day, but this was to be the most exciting part of the camp. I was going to finally see the dreaded Hope Pass.

Unfortunately my day ended only 3/4 of a mile into the run when I twisted my ankle. It make a loud "crack" as I landed on it and I knew immediately that this was no ordinary sprain. I was sure that I had just broke my ankle. So was the girl that I was passing on the course when it happened. She told the people around me that were helping that she heard it snap when I landed on it and she was sure I just broke it.



I was diagnosed with a Grade 2 Sprain which means I tore (but didn't separate) a ligament. I flew home a day early and began freaking out. I had been training extremely hard and was in the best shape of my life. I had no idea how long the ankle was going to keep me from running but I was terrified to loose the fitness I had worked so hard for.

My plan had been to run the Vermont 100 4 weeks before Leadville. I was planning on that to be my A race and race it hard. Then I would go to Leadville and just try to finish in under their allowed 30 hours. Just finishing the race is considered a huge accomplishment and the normal finishing rate hovers around 40%.

For the next two weeks I could not run a single step. I took to training on my road bike to try to keep my aerobic fitness up, but I know that riding a bike and running are two very separate things. I did a couple of very small runs on the third week and my ankle hurt a lot. I decided that it wasn't healing fast enough so I called my favorite PT, Brian Verville. Brian owns Granite State Physical Therapy and has fixed me several times in the past. He is simply awesome. He understands what I put myself through and doesn't give me shit or think I'm crazy. He just helps me....successfully....every time. By this time I only had 3 or 4 weeks until the race. I pushed myself hard during this time period. Every run hurt, but I was just walking that thin line between hurting myself worse and getting better. Luckily sprained ankles need activity to heal. I certainly obliged. I even incorporated a 47 mile day into my training on a Sunday. I ran 17 in the morning with some friends and then left home at 9:30 at night and ran another 30. I continued to go to PT right up to the week I left.

In the last few weeks I ran weekly mileage totals of 98, 69 and 65. My ankle was slowly hurting less and less on the runs and my confidence had increased to the point where I wasn't that concerned with it hurting my chances of finishing the race.

I flew out the Monday before the race with my wife Amy, my two kids and my mom. I had done a lot of research on how to acclimate and there seems to be a lot of different thoughts as to the best approach. I decided to spend a week at altitude and just not worry about it.

On Tuesday I met up with Adam Wilcox who came out with his wife Miriam a couple days before. Adam is one of my two pacers for the race. We decided to hike Hope Pass since I didn't have a chance to see it before. We had a beautiful day and we took about 5 hours to hike up to the summit and run down. We decided to skip going down the other side because I didn't want to do too much so close to race day. In hindsight I wish that we had at least gone over the pass a little bit so I could see what the terrain was like. The backside of Hope is the steeper part but I just figured that it was similar to what we had just done. Man was I wrong! I'll get to that in a little bit. I was worried that it took us so long to cover what I thought was only 6 miles. I was very happy to discover later that the route we took was actually closer to 12 miles, which included a little side excursion that we took when we took the wrong path..

On Wednesday I decided to bag my first 14,000 ft elevation mountain and met Adam and Miriam to go to the top of Mt. Sherman. Sherman is one of the "easier" 14k peaks and I just wanted to see what the elevation would feel like. The hike was only 4 miles round trip and I felt great. It only took me 1 hour and 48 minutes to go up and back to the car.

Looking down from the top of Mt. Sherman

The next two days were spend with the family. We had a great time seeing the local sights. We even took the train out of Leadville. It was really fun and I learned a lot about the local history of mining.

I didn't run a single step on Thursday or Friday. Thursday Jeff Waldron also joined us as he was going to pace me with Adam. They had worked out that Adam would pace me the 37 miles from the halfway point to May Queen and Jeff would pace me the last 13.5 to the finish line. Thursday night my brother Barry flew in and we all spent the next day attending the race briefings and driving the course so Barry and Amy could see where they would need to go to crew me.

Its hard to explain the mental game that goes on when I sign up for a race like this. I usually commit to a 100 mile race 7 or 8 months in advance. Then I go through a period of investigation to see what I'm getting myself into. I become obsessed and find out everything I can about the terrain, finish rate, etc. During this time I work on getting better at not just my running, but my diet and overall conditioning. This year was no different. I went from weighing 173 pounds in October to 148 pounds the week of the race. Its is not an understatement to say that every single step I took in training was consumed with the idea of being ready for the race.

I have found that this pattern is exactly the same pattern to achieving any goal I have in my life. Running 100 miles is inconceivable for most people. I really think that is only because they don't understand that achieving something like this is just the result of working a plan. For me it is a pattern that keeps repeating itself. The more you repeat the pattern the more confidence you gain that you can do anything.

It starts with an idea. Then that idea becomes an obsession. Actually it becomes more of a burning passion. Then I work on believing and visualizing that I can actually accomplish it. I cannot emphasize enough how important that is. When you set BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) for yourself you have to get to the point that you believe that you can do it. Then you have to do the work to be ready. In this case its training super hard. In other cases, like building a business, its doing all the planning and research and building the infrastructure. Either way, its the same thing. Idea, burning passion, belief, then accomplishment. Failure doesn't even come into the picture because when you have the burning passion you will keep trying until you achieve your goal. It doesn't matter that you might have to keep trying or that every person on earth won't see it your way. Your burning passion and desire to accomplish your goal over rides all obstacles.

Saturday morning we all got up at 2:30 in the morning so we could be ready for the 4am start. I was strangely calm. We all walked the few blocks from the house we were staying in to the starting line on 6th street. The weather was perfect. It was about 40 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

At 4 Ken Chlouber fired the shotgun that starts the race and we were off. This year there were almost 800 people signed up. From what I understand about 650 showed up at the start. I started from the 3rd or 4th row of people. I didn't want to get caught up in a slow group around the single track 7 miles into the race around Turquoise lake as it's to narrow to pass.

Rocky trail around the lake (photo - Sherpa John)

At the same time I didn't want to go out to fast and burn out early. As it turned out everything was fine and I arrived at the May Queen aid Station in a little over 2 hours. I was going nice and easy and everything felt great, including my ankle. The 6 mile section around the lake was rocky single track and it took a lot of concentration being in a huge conga line of runners. Once in a while I looked back and saw a gigantic row of headlights bobbing in the woods forming a line around the circumference of the lake. It was a beautiful sight.


The next section was from May Queen to Fish Hatchery. This is a 10 mile section that starts with a climb on the Colorado trail until it comes out on Hagerman Road. The road is a gradual climb that is flat dirt road and easy to run with such fresh legs. It takes a sharp left and then continues to climb. During this spot the sun is just coming up and you are treated with your first incredible views of the day.

The view of Turquoise Lake from Hagerman Road

You can see Turquoise Lake and the surrounding mountains and it is breathtaking. I was feeling strong here and trying to stay smart by powerhiking as the road got steeper. This road climbs for a while then starts to descend down the powerlines.

Heading down Powerline (Sugarloaf)

It is a long downhill and the first quadbuster of the race. I continued to feel good and was concentrating hard on eating regularly and drinking often. At the bottom of the hill you are dumped out onto a paved road and then run a short distance to Fish Hatchery.

Fish Hatchery (taken at the training camp)

I felt great here and met up with Barry and Amy about 5 minutes ahead of my plan. I used some of that extra time to use the porta potty and I emerged feeling great.

The next section of the race is a short 4.5 miles to "Pipeline" where we can see our crew again. This section is all pavement and flat. It is also tough mentally because it feels like you are going nowhere. The horizon is way off in the distance and you feel like you are not getting any closer to it. During the training camp I hated this section. During the race I felt great here. I was now over a marathon into the race and had only had one tough spot where I didn't want to eat anything sweet anymore. My diet for the last month and a half had no sugar in it. So far in the race I was living on Gu Roctaine Gels, Gu Chomps, Gatorade and Amino Vital Endurance drink. Everything was so sweet it was turning my stomach. Luckily my awesome crew was paying attention and soon started preparing noodles and broth for me. It helped immensely.



At most 100 mile Ultras you get a special belt buckle if you finish in under 24 hours. At Leadville the tradition has always been 25 hours because they feel it is harder. Every finisher at the race (in the allotted 30 hours) gets a buckle, but everyone who finishes in under 25 gets a special buckle that is silver and gold and has the words "under 25 hours" on it. Going into the race I wasn't sure I was in that kind of shape. Traditionally only about 10% of the entrants accomplish it. I had planned out my splits by both 25 hour pace and 30 hour pace. At this point I just hovering at my planned pace to get me to the finish line in under 25 hours. As I headed out to the Half Moon aid station I asked the crew what time I needed to be there by. They said 9:15 or 5 hours 15 minutes into the race for the 30.5 miles. I found this section to be tricky as the trail was wide, smooth and easy to run, but it was a gradual uphill and I couldn't run as much of it as I wanted to.



I was discouraged to find myself at the aid stations almost 20 minutes behind of the 25 hour pace.

I got in and out of the aid station quickly. This is one of two aid stations that is not accessible by your crew and it sucked not having them there to keep my spirits up. Up to this point I had talked with almost nobody. I was pretending I was alone and just staying in my head.

I get asked all the time, "what do you think about for such a long period of time?" Its hard to explain, but its easy to focus on something when you have been planning so hard for so long. I just concentrated on getting to the next aid station and managing my food and fluid intake.

After Half Moon there is a long downhill of about 3 miles. It felt great to open it up and really run in the woods. It felt like I was coasting and I was feeling great. The downhill ends with a tiny little climb and then you run down this loose, rocky mound of dirt into the Twin Lakes aid station to the roar of the crowds of people.

Coming into Twin Lakes

It felt great to see the crew again and I found that I was now 17 minutes ahead of 25 hour pace. It was a great mental boost which couldn't have come at a better time as I was just about to head over to Hope Pass. I had just run 39.5 miles and switched to my backpack/hydration pack . Even though it was sunny and 75 degrees the pack still contained a rain jacket, gloves, hat extra food and gels, as the weather can turn nasty in a second. It is a rare Leadville race where you don't get caught up in some kind of storm and the top of Hope traditionally can have rain, snow, sleet and intense lightning so you have to be prepared.

Heading out of the aid station there are several water crossings including a stream crossing with a rope across it to help you keep your balance.

Stream Crossing on the way to Hope (Photo - Sherpa John)

The water was freezing and felt great on my feet. Up to this point I had no blisters and I was hoping that that the wet feet wouldn't cause any. As I started up the trail I was in great spirits. I had just done this hike 4 days before and I knew what to expect. I personally don't think that this part of the climb is that difficult and I was power hiking it with ease. I passed a few people here who were struggling with the elevation (or maybe it was just lack of training) and I made great time to the clearing in the field known as the Hopeless Aid Station. It is not accessible by crew and it is so hard to get to that the food and supplies are brought up by Llamas.

The Llamas at Hopeless Aid Station (Photo - Sherpa John)

There were about 20 of them in all different shapes and colors and they really brought a smile to my face. It was one of those surreal sights that made me feel like what I was experiencing was a real gift. There were the Llamas, friendly volunteers who made you feel like a rock star and the beautiful view of the top of Hope in front of you.

One of the volunteers filled up my bottle, which I was using in conjunction with my hydration pack and I was off to tackle the hardest part of the climb. The last 600ft of the climb are steep switchbacks above treeline. During this time I saw the leader, Anton Krupicka running towards me down the path. Being an out and back course one of the neat things is to start seeing the front runners come back heading the other way. He looked smooth and in control and I was amazed that he had already put almost 10 miles on me in less than 9 hours. Amazing. Unfortunately his race came to an end about 13 miles from the finish line. I never did find out exactly what happened to him but the rumor is that he was taken away on the back of an ATV. He gave it his all and was on course record pace until he blew up.

I got to the top of Hope, elevation 12,600ft, and took a second to appreciate what I had just climbed. Took another quick look at the incredible views and then took off down the back side.



This was the part I had not seen before and I couldn't believe how steep it was! It was 20 minutes until I saw the second place runner and he looked like he was working hard to get the climb done. The descent took a lot longer that I thought that 2.5 miles should as it was rocky, rooty and just plain steep.

At the bottom of the climb you come out onto the Winfield Road which is washed out, potholed dirt and is flooded with vehicles going to and coming from the Aid Station which is almost 3 miles up the road. There is a huge amount of dust in the air and I found that I had to rinse the grit out of my mouth every couple minutes. I could really feel it in my lungs too. The road is mostly uphill and I power walked much of it.

The Winfeld Road  (Photo - Sherpa John)

I finally got into the aid station and felt happy to be able to pick up Adam to pace me. I had to weigh in and was only down 1 pound. This was a great confirmation that I was doing a good job keeping hydrated. I was in good spirits and was now 27 minutes ahead of the 25 hour pace. I told Adam, "wait until you see how brutal this climb is going to be".

We took off down the dusty road and ran much of the way to the entrance of the trail. Almost immediately after getting on the trail I started to feel bad. I had no energy and the climb was brutal. There were several times that I had to just stop and lean against a tree to keep my balance. The most discouraging part of this section was that I was passed by a lot of runners and their pacers. I would have felt better if others appeared to be suffering as bad as I was, but that was not the case. Near the top when the trail rose above trail line you could see the other runners at what seemed to be a mile vertically above you on the trail. Ug. Almost at the top I saw my friend Sherpa John Lacroix who looked pretty good and said he was doing ok. He took a picture of me and Adam and later told me that I didn't look so good. Seeing the picture now I realize that he was right!

Me and Adam near the top of the return climb up Hope Pass (Photo Sherpa John)

Adam was great to have with me. He kept me moving and we were having a lot of great conversation which distracted me from the tough climb. After digging in and gutting it out I got to the top. As soon as the trail went downhill I felt great. It was like I had a chance to use completely different muscles and they were nice and rested. We made awesome time down the mountain and we cruised into Twin Lakes with more time in the bank. I was now 20 minutes ahead of 25 hour pace. I took 7 minutes here, which is a long time for me. I changed shoes and socks which was great to be able to do after going back through the streams and water crossings. I was just starting to get some blisters on the bottom of my feet and the dry shoes really kept them from getting worse (at this point at least).

We headed out into another big climb.

Me and Adam head out of Twin Lakes

Again I felt great on the climb and just kept a steady pace trying not to get my heart rate to high. The best part of this section is that I knew that after this climb there was a 4 to 5 mile stretch of nice runable trail that was downhill. I couldn't wait to put more time in the bank and as soon as we finished climbing we ran at a decent pace for quite a while. We soon came to the Half Moon aid station were I grabbed a half a cup of de fizzled coke. While I was drinking it this guy was talking really loud, and smiling and laughing. He mentioned something to one of the aid station workers that he was supposed to play softball on Sunday. I was amazed. I asked him if he had ever run a 100 mile race before. He looked at me, suddenly really serious and in the awkward silence I was sure I just offended some super fit runner. Then he burst out laughing and says "F**K No Dude!, this is my first one!!". Adam and I laughed our heads off and I informed him that there was no way in hell he would be doing anything other than limping on Sunday. I wished him good luck and we took off towards our crew at Pipeline.

About 1/2 mile before Pipeline Adam noticed a deer right next to the road we were running. As we approached it didn't move an inch. It was standing with its head lowered and its front legs spread apart, almost like it was drunk or about to puke. It had a mile long stare an just watched us as we approached. I became more freaked out as we got closer and it didn't move. There was something seriously wrong with this animal. I don't know anything about wildlife, but I strongly suspect that it was rabid. It watched us with it's hollow eyes and moved only its head as we ran by, less than 10 feet way. I kept waiting for it to attack us.

We got to Pipeline at 8:08pm and it was just getting dark enough to have to use our headlamps. I was now about 45 minutes ahead of the 25 hour time frame and starting to feel tired. The crew fed me more noodles and I also had a can of Starbucks Cappuccino. It was delicious!

Mmmm - Starbucks

They also gave me my Nike Ipod Hat so I could listen to music. I have only used music once in a race and never in a 100 miler. I wasn't sure how I would like it but anything that kept me moving and motivated would certainly help. My bottles were filled and we headed out towards the dreaded 4.5 mile road section towards Fish Hatchery.

I pulled into Fish Hatchery at 9:08 and was weighed by the medical staff. I was up 1.5 pounds from the start which meant I was retaining a little water, but it was nothing to worry about and they quickly released me. Adam was starting to look a little tired to me but I was only thinking about my race. Heading out of the station brings you to the most feared part of the course, the Sugarloaf (or Powerlines) climb. As soon as we got to the climb Metallica's Master of Puppets came on and I just got into a grove that matched the drums. I was a ways up the climb when I realized that Adam was no longer with me. I wasn't sure what the proper thing to do was. I was feeling awesome on what was supposed to be the hardest part of the race and I wanted to just keep in the grove. On the other hand my friend had taken a week off work and spent a lot of money to come to Colorado to help me achieve my goals. I slowed down and he caught up. I asked him what was the matter and he said he was sick. He couldn't hold any food down and had lost all desire to eat anything as he was now really nauseous. This is a very common thing to happen in an ultra and if you don't eat regularly you get sick to your stomach, which in turn prevents you from eating. This eventually leads to a complete shut down of the body. The only thing you can do to fix it is to eat, which is the very last thing you want to do.

I tried to make him eat a Gu Chomp and he dry heaved the moment he bit into it. He was now upset at slowing me down and wanted me to go ahead. At this point we were still about 6 miles from the next aid station and I wasn't comfortable with just leaving him sick on the trail. I got him to drink and he said that he felt better. But he still wouldn't eat. Looking back at it now I don't think he felt better at all. I think he was just trying to get me going and to stop worrying about him. Eventually we hit the long downhill section of Hagerman Road and I ended up running and listening to tunes. I kind of forgot about the entire world. I thought that Adam was right behind me, and it wasn't until miles later that I realized that he wasn't. I turned down the section of the Colorado Trail that connects Hagerman Road to the road to May Queen and blasted the downhill. I was singing at the top of my lungs and flying down the rocky trail. When I got into May Queen at mile 86.5 at 11:52pm the crew told me that I was now 1 hour and 38 minutes ahead of the 25 hour cutoff. This meant that I now had 5 hours to go 13.5 miles. I finally realized that I was going to get the big buckle, even if I had to walk in the entire way.

Adam rolled into the station while I was still there so he was never really that far behind me. I apologized for ditching him and he told me not to worry about it. I think he was worried that he might have slowed me down, but the truth is that he was an enormous help to me over the last 37 miles and I was glad to have him there.

At this point I picked up Jeff as my pacer. Jeff is 24 years old and had been helping the crew the entire day. He was supposed to get some sleep but he was having so much fun with Barry and Amy that he never did. He was super pumped up to pace me for the last section. It was here that I finally was told that I was somewhere in the top 50, maybe even higher. I had hardly thought about my finishing place all day as I had been so focused on my time. This news really fired me up and me and Jeff left for the trails around Turquoise lake under a full moon and mostly clear skies.

Jeff, ready to pace me the last 13.5 miles.

Jeff seemed amazed that I was still running and was super encouraging. He is the type of person that always seems to appreciate everything around him and I've hardly ever heard him say anything negative about anybody. He knows who every runner out there is and what their results have been. He tells me, you just left before Hal (Korner, Western States winner). I say, he must be having a pretty bad day to be back here with me. That's when Jeff starts to tell me I'm not a mid pack runner anymore and that I'm doing something special here today. It really put a lot of pep in my step.

We alternated between running and walking the smaller hills around the lake. About 6 miles after leaving May Queen we ran into our crew at Tabor Boat ramp. We only stopped for about a minute as we didn't need anything but to keep moving. At this point I only had about 7 miles to go and I was now on pace to finish somewhere in the mid 22 hour range. As we ran along the lake I was starting to have a hard time seeing. It was as if I was loosing more and more light from my headlight, but it was working. I kept having to ask Jeff which way the trail went through the trees. Everything was getting dimmer. I had thought that my headlight batteries weren't fresh so I swapped headlamps with Amy at the boat ramp, but that one was working the same way. I slowly realized that it was me, not the lights. It did concern me, but I had heard about that happening so I really didn't worry that much about it. I had Jeff with me and he was guiding me just fine.

Shortly after the boat ramp I ran into my coach, Jack Pilla.

Coach Jack Pilla

Amy had been giving me reports all day that Jack wasn't feeling well and he was walking it in. As I caught up to him I realized his version of walking and mine are two different things. He was still making pretty good progress. We chatted for a while and he told me to get out of there and get running. I took off with Jeff and ran wherever I could.

As with any 100 miler there were some things that were starting to really hurt. My ankle was feeling fine, but for the past 20 or 30 miles I could feel the tendon that runs on the top of my foot starting to tighten up. I'm not sure if it was related to the sprain, but I have had this problem in the past. Mostly when I run a long (over 60 miles ) of pavement. I had done my best to ignore it and hope it wouldn't get worse, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to pretend it wasn't there. It was flat out starting to hurt. I could also feel the blisters developing in the creases of the bottoms of my feet. They were not that bad when I was running on a smooth surface, but when there were rocks involved I was having a hard time dealing with the shooting pain that happened every time I stepped on one.

Jeff and I came out onto a dirt road which was a slight uphill. I asked Jeff how much further we had to go and he said about 3 miles. He was wearing his GPS so I thought that he knew exactly how far we had to go. I looked at my watch and had about 45 minutes to get in under 23 hours. I was psyched. I pushed to run as much as I could and after about 10-15 minutes we were still on this stupid dirt road with no lights from the town in sight. I asked him again how far we had to go and he says, " about 4.5". I freaked out. What do you mean? You told me a while ago that it was only 3! Then he told me that he thought it would motivate me to finish quicker if I thought I had less to go. He said it was just a little fib.

It set me into a complete tailspin. I got super grumpy and stopped running. I knew that there was no way to get in under 23 hours and I knew that I was going to be in within the 25 hour time for the big buckle so I just figured I'd walk it in. My ankle was killing me, my blisters were shooting with pain and I was in a complete funk. It is amazing how fast things can change. One minute I'm on top of the world and the next everything is going black.

Jeff felt bad and apologized but by now the gloves were off and I was raw with emotion. I kept asking him why did he lie to me? Why would you do that to me? In hindsight its pretty funny, as were only talking about a mile difference, but when you are that cooked the weirdest things happen.

I pulled my head out of my ass when we finally reached the paved road. Now I knew that there was only a little climb on paved roads and we would be crossing the famous finish line. At the top of the rise it flattens out and you can see the finish line. Right when I got to that point Jeff all of a sudden says, "there's somebody right behind us, Jack, is that you?" Jack had turned off his headlight and slowly crept up to me, stalking me while I was sniveling!! He laughed and I turned and said to him, "No F-ing way are you going to beat me, sorry coach!!"

I took off like it was a 5k. I have about .25 mile to the finish line, I've just done 99.75 miles and now I have to sprint. I couldn't even look back! I asked Jeff if here was there three times and Jeff just said to keep going, he was catching us!

I made it to the finish line huffing and puffing. Right before I crossed the line my daughter started to run with me and I noticed that my son was holding the finish line tape. It was awesome. My whole family was there at 2:30 in the morning and I was finally done! The official time was 23 hours and 6 minutes. I found out that I finished in 38th place out of 780 entrants (about 650 started).




Jack came across the line less than a minute after me. He is awesome. In his last two Hundreds he has finished in First (VT100 2009 with a time of 16:30) and three weeks ago he finished 3rd (Burning River with a time of 16:22). I have huge respect for his ability to tough it out even when he was not going to finish near the top like he is used to. His coaching and support is the reason that I was able to finish this race with the time I did. Anybody who wants to step up their game and get serious about improving their times should consider using his services. You can find him here.

The Big Buckle!!

As always, I find it hard to put into words how much I appreciate the group of people who made this possible for me. The list includes my kids, Max and Izzy, my Mom Sonia, my pacers and friends Adam and Jeff, my brother Barry and my wife Amy. I am humbled when I think about how much sacrifice these people made to help me achieve a very personal and selfish goal. I could only hope to be as good of a friend, brother, son, father and husband to them.

Powerlines training

Today my friend Adam was supposed to join me on a 20 mile run so I could show him the Powerlines that I regularly train on. He called me early this morning and told me that he wasn't going to make it because his alergies are really acting up and he's sick. So I decided to take my new camera along and take pictures so I could show him what he missed. I get asked so many times what I think about on these long runs. I have a hard time answering that question without somebody being there seeing what I'm seeing. So today I present a photo essay of my morning run.

Ready to go! (and looking like a dork)

There is a 1.3 mile run on the road from my house to....

The entrance to the trail.

Thats as long as your shoes will stay dry, even if it is nice out.

The surface consists of nice soft trails to...

...lots of rocks and mud. Facebook friends of mine will remember that 3 weeks ago I posted a picture of my knee blown up from where I slipped on this trail. This is the spot where that happened. The big rock on the left is the one I smashed my knee into.

Much of this trail is ankle deep water with no way around.

3.5 miles into the run the trail crosses a dirt road and starts to go up. The steepest part of the climb is a half mile and this is where I do my hill repeats.

Nice soft trail. In the summer this part is covered with wild flowers. What you can't really see in this picture is how steep it is.

This is where it really starts to get steep. Its not so steep that you have to walk, but it is about as steep as I can go while still running. Perfect training.

This section is 4 miles in. Is is ankle deep mud that leads to a long waterhole.

Nowhere to go except strait through it.

It is so cold it is hard to get through it.

You crest a hill after the water hole and then it goes downhill to this section.

This goose was screaming at me. I'm guessing that there were little ones around.

At 4.85 miles you cross this class 6 road. Lets take a side trip.

Look up in the trees. There is part of a large tree about 20 feet up. Result of the windstorms that we had a few months ago.

A little ways up the road there are remnants of a front yard. There are steps going to nowhere.

And an old well.

I had to peek. I was bummed to see a beer can at the bottom.

I don't know much about old houses, but I think this was part of the foundation. I love imagining what it might have looked like when it was there. How long ago, I wonder?

The first time I explored the area I found this ammo box under a rock. I was freaked out that it was there and then I noticed that it had a NH geocashing website written on it so I had to peek inside to see what it was all about.

I wish that I had brought something to put in! Of course, I left everything exactly as it was.

I head back down the road and jump back on the powerlines. Not long after I have to cross this mess. It is knee deep and the bottom is full of soft sand. It fills my shoes with mud.

A little after the 7 mile mark there is a snowmobile trail that runs parallel to the powerlines. Its nice to change up the terrain. As you can see, it is as wet as the other trails.

The trail dumps out back onto the powerlines where its time to climb again.

I know that there is nothing I can do to get prepared for Leadvilles altititude, but this steep rocky trail is about the best training I can do around here.

More powerlines, as far as the eye can see. I'm heading over that ridge in the distance.

At 10.5 miles in, I run through a farm. There is a horse who could care less about me and these sheep.

After the farm, I run another .5 mile then turn around and head back. This is the view from the other way. This is at about the 12 mile mark. I stopped taking pictures because I ran the next 6 miles at marathon pace per my sadistic coaches demands. It feels good to open up the legs and breath heavy after stopping so many times to take pictures.

This is the view from the top of the steep hill where I run my hill intervals on the way back. Once last summer I was sprinting down this hill when I saw a bear running through the brushes on the right. I was flying and only saw a flash of black fur to my direct right, about 15 feet in front of me. If he kept going we would have collided. Luckily I startled him and he stopped in his tracks and turned. I have never run so fast in my life as I ran down that hill. If I had hit him he would have killed me. Scary stuff.

Below is a map of the run. Sorry the blog layout cuts it off, but if you click on the "view details" link at the bottom right you will go the full page showing the elevation, pace, map, etc for the run. I ended up running the 20.1 miles at a 9:06 pace. Not bad considering that I did the same run on Thursday! Hope you enjoyed coming on my run with me. Thanks for reading.

Shoe Review - Vasque Transistor FS

I'm a bit of a shoe fanatic. I used to make fun of my wife for the amount of shoes that she has (and wants) but now I can't say a thing. Since I began running I have always been in search of the perfect shoe. The truth that I discovered is that there is no such thing. Since I run both road and trails (and races/courses that have both) I have found that different types of terrain demand different types of shoes.

There are so many variables to running that different types of runs and terrain demand different types of shoes. My usual week this time of year consists of 65-80 miles. I run a mid-week long run of about 15 miles and a weekend run that is almost always over 20 miles. During those long runs I typically run some paved roads to get to trails and the trails have smooth single track to muddy, swampy, sandy, hilly sections.

In the last year I have found that I like lower, softer shoes. My favorite shoe for just pavement is the Nike Free 5.0. I find this shoe to feel almost non-existent on my foot, but it has enough cushioning to protect my feet. The problem is that as soon as the road turns to trail the shoe is terrible. It has no off road traction and doesn't drain water at all.

In my quest to find an offroad shoe that feels similar I have turned to the New Balance MT100. This new shoe from NB feels like a slipper, but has a thin sole that has a rock protection plate in it. I love this shoe, but for longer runs that have considerable pavement they are too thin. Anything over 20 miles in these shoes feels to hard.

Between these two shoes I'm pretty much covered for most of my regular training runs. The problem is that I am training for several 100 mile races (VT100 and Leadville Trail 100). Both of these runs consist of some pavement, some trails and lots of hardpacked dirt roads. Neither of the above mentioned shoes are going to work for me as the Free's don't work for off road and the NB's don't have enough cushioning for running 20-25 hours.

Last week I got the new edition of Trail Runner which has a review of new trail running shoes. In the review there was a shoe that caught my attention. The Vasque Transistor FS. They were described as low to the ground, lightweight (10.4 oz) and looked to have a lot of protection and cushioning. My only concern was that they looked like every other over built trail shoe.

I decided to take a trip over to EMS in Concord because I noticed last week that they had a bunch of new model trial shoes in stock. I thought that I might have seen the Vasque and I had to go see if I remembered correctly.



Upon walking into the shop I was immediately greeted by Garrett and Joe. Garrett says "Nate, glad you came in, we have a bunch of new shoes that you should check out!" I walked over to the wall and was psyched to see that they had the Vasque in stock. Garrett grabbed a 10.5 and I was extremely surprised at how they felt. Although they looked burley, the felt super light and surprisingly low to the ground. The souls felt flexible which is extremely important to me. I hate running in shoes that don't flex with my feet. The other thing I noticed was that there was no insole to the shoe. I've never had a shoe like that. The shoe felt very comfy and had a lot of room in the toe box, which is great because I have long monkey toes and often I feel my toes against the front of the shoes when descending, even when they are not to small.

I bought the shoes for $100 and took them out the next day. I took them on a route that would throw everything at them. I left my house and ran 2 miles of pavement to the trail head. They felt great on the pavement. A little stiff in the heals compared to the frees, but acceptable. As soon as I got on the trails I fell in love. I felt low, but protected. This is exactly what I've been looking for. I could feel every element of the trail but still had cushioning. After about .5 mile the trail heads up a big muddy hill that is covered in fallen branches. The grip felt excellent and I wasn't slipping at all. What goes up must come down and the steep following hill offered me the first chance to see if my feet would stay put or if they would jam in the front of the shoe. Again, they felt great and had lots of traction at the steep muddy bottom.

The trail then dumps out to a class 6 road that is wet and rocky. This is the first time I had a chance to run in the shoes wet. I would like to see a little bit better draining as the shoes felt like the held in the water a little bit longer than I am used to in the MT100s. It wasn't bad and to be fair, I have never found a shoe that drains better than the New Balances. The rest of the run had a little more pavement and lots more wet, muddy trail. It is a out and back run so I turned around and went through the same on the way home. I finished thinking that the shoe was low and feels thin underfoot, but still offered way more padding and protection than a typical minimalistic shoe would.

I can't give a full opinion of these shoes until I take them on some more longer runs, but after that first run I am really looking forward to putting some more miles on them. I think I might have just found the SUV of trail running shoes for those of us looking for a minimalistic shoe that acts like a burly trail runner.

These are my fist pair of Vasques, and I'm impressed.

February recap

Well February 2010 is now in the books and I've had a great month. The business had the best Feb. we have ever had. We had a lofty goal and we hit it on the head. I've hired a couple new people and they are great additions to the team. That's how you grow sales, you add great people. I'm still amazed at how many business owners don't make the connection. I've heard from so many business owners that the thing they hate the most is managing their employees. It's really too bad that they don't understand that they can't do it all themselves and they better put more attention into hiring the right people. They are out there, you just have to make it a priority to find them.

I've been asked many times why National Powersports is so successful. Its really simple. Have a strong set of standards, build a system that backs up those standards and then hire the people who feel the same way.

One change that has contributed to the increase in sales is our new "National Powersports Premium" program. All of our bikes that are less than 8 years old and less than 25k miles now come completely serviced, detailed and with a 90-day nation wide warranty. Nobody else in the business is doing that with used bikes. Our customers are really responding positively to the change. I am feeling very positive about this year at the shop. For anybody reading this who has purchased a bike from us, thank you!

As far as my running goes, again, I had a great month. I ran 228 miles. That is a pretty low mileage month, but for February it is a good number. The bigger picture is that I ran over 20 miles three times in the last three weeks. Two of the runs were tough 24 mile hilly snowy trail runs and the other was a 22 mile road run. I feel great and have no injuries.



I think deciding to run the Leadville 100 was a good decision. We'll see in August. For now, it is really helping me train because its what I think about almost every step of my training. One of the most exciting parts about Leadville is that I have the most kick ass crew lined up. My wife Amy will be there with my brother Barry. They were my crew for last years VT100 and they know exactly how to take care of me. Also coming is my other brother Matt. My Mom is also coming to help with the kids. It is almost embarrassing for me to have my entire family take a week out of their life all for me. I don't know how I will show my gratitude, but I sure am grateful to have all of them in my life.

Anxious

I am anxious. The dictionary defines Anxious as:

"Full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; solicitous"

I'm sitting here with my laptop, again, answering emails and feeling like I'm doing the wrong thing. This is not what I should be doing. I should be building something new. I should be doing something great.

It's hard to explain when I get like this. There are many times when I feel a tug to do something great. Something spectacular. I know I'm capable of it. If you have read any of my previous posts then you know I believe that we can do ANYTHING. The problem is that I don't know what it is that I want to do. Is this normal? Do we all feel like this from time to time? I question if I am just being lazy. Lacking focus. But, this stupid weight on my chest won't go away. It is like a longing. Sometimes when I get this way I just say to myself, "start". Like Nike says, just do it. But if you don't know what you want to do you can't begin to start.

I have no idea why I'm sharing this with everybody. I think most of you know me enough to be considered a friend. I have been asked by many friends, "dude, do you ever relax? Aren't you ever happy with what you've done already?" Of course I am. But how does that have any bearing on what I still want to do? I don't see the connection. So I am sharing my thoughts with you because I had to do SOMETHING, so I decided to write in my blog.

The biggest problem I have is translating the yearning into a mental picture of what I want to do. Everybody that reads my blog knows about my desire to write a book. I'm not doing so well on that quest. I keep reverting to what I know and love. Business. When people say to me, "You must be so happy working with your passion, motorcycles" I have to tell them that as much as I love motorcycles, I really love the business side more. I could be get as excited selling cupcakes. My biggest thrill with National Powersports has been building it from nothing.


Right now I know a couple people that are having a hard time with their business'. I can see some very clear reasons why they are not doing well. I know that these problems are fixable, but I am not in the position to offer my opinions. It makes me wonder how many other people are in this position that are using the "poor economy" as their reason for not doing well. The reality is that business' do well and fail in all economies. Its just that when the business environment gets tougher the basics have to be covered to succeed or thrive. If the basics are not there it is easy to blame the environment.

I would absolutely love help these people. I'm dying to get them motivated to succeed. I'm dying to map it all out for them. I'm dying to get them remember the passion they had when they started. I am dying to get my hands on their financials. Not for any other reason than to look at the puzzle and piece together a solution. Maybe it's easy for me because I'm on the outside looking in, but the idea of helping people turn their fortune around really excites me. I seem to have an easier time improving an existing idea than coming up with an original one. What would be better than keeping somebody from loosing their livelihood? That's heavy duty stuff!!

I haven't figured out a way to start with this process. Whenever somebody positions themselves as a "business consultant" I usually see a blowhard. Maybe my apprehension for people in this position is a result of my giant ego, I'm not sure. Maybe I should start down this road. Maybe this would help me write my book. Maybe I just got a new mental picture.

Maybe I should write in my blog more often. Thanks!!

Fat Ass

No, I'm not calling anybody names. For those of you not in the "Ultrarunning" world, a "Fat Ass" race event is a race where there are no entry fees, no awards and no whining. It typically entails a bunch of friends getting together and loosely holding a race. This weekend I attended the GAC (Gillys Athletic Club) Fat Ass 50k (31 miles) in Topsfield Mass. I only decided to do this race about 2 weeks ago because I have been feeling good and ready to race.

The last quarter of my running year didn't go so well. First, I dropped out of the Vermont 50 in September. That was my first DNF (did not finish) ever. I didn't let it bother me that much. The weather was miserable and I went out to fast. I quit 20 miles into the 50 mile race. I felt that I made the right decision. Then in October I pulled out early of my attempt to run across NH. Again, it didn't really bother me because I did it as a fun run with John and I went into it with the attitude that I would just run as far as I felt like running. During the run at about mile 50 my shin pumped up. It felt like a shin splint, but I never get shin splints. As the run wore on the pain got worse and started traveling up to my knee. I decided to quit at mile 65 because I didn't want to cause myself any injury. It was a little too late. I ended up having to reduce my weekly mileage from 70-75 to about 30 to heal it up.

Things were feeling better in about 3 weeks and I had already entered the Stone Cat 50 miler in November. Its a fun race that sells out so I didn't want to miss it. My shin had been feeling better and my first loop (12.5 miles or so) felt great. I was on 8 hour pace but I was working to hard. I was trying to run at an easy pace, but got a little bit caught up in the scene. Its easy to do. At mile 16 my shin started to hurt. But it was manageable so I decided to ignore it. By mile 20 I was having a mental battle between re injuring myself and calling myself a pussy. Its hard when your doing an endurance race to know when to quit and when to suck it up and wait until the pain passes. You really have to know what type of pain it is and make sure you are assessing it correctly. When I finished the second loop they give you the option of just doing the marathon distance. I took the option and tried to feel ok about it. Everybody told me that I was being smart, but I was beginning to doubt my mental strength.

I took about 3 weeks of active recovery (30-35 miles a week) and my shin pain has disappeared. My coach, Jack Pilla, ramped up my mileage to a manageable 50 or so for the last 3 weeks and I went into this race feeling great. My goal for this race was to just finish so I could get that monkey off my back.

The start

At the start of the race I was standing near the front of the pack when the organizer yelled 3, 2, 1, go! Crap!! I didn't want to be in the front. I didn't want to go out to fast. I just wanted to have a fun day. So, in 3rd place, I decided to just run slow and let everybody pass me. The weird thing is that almost nobody passed me. After about 1/2 a mile I looked back and realized that I was pulling away from the rest of the pack. Crap. What do they know that I don't? I knew that my heart rate was ok, and I really felt like I was running easy so I decided to just keep on going.

This race is a 6.2 mile loop. I had never seen the trail before but I was told that it only had one hill and it was a fairly easy loop. The one thing that was really tough was that at least 4 miles of the 6.2 mile loop was really soft snow. Like running in sugar. Cold sugar. I knew that this was going to suck the life out of most of us so I focused on my running efficiency and my heart rate (just by feel, I wasn't wearing a monitor). I finished the first loop in 59 minutes and felt like I was on a good pace. A few people passed me, and then I saw 2 of them stop after the first loop. I had forgot that at these events many people just show up to run one or two laps. Again, I hoped that I wasn't going out to fast.

Sugar snow

For the first time ever in a race I was listening to music. I wanted to just treat this race like a regular Sunday long run and the music was a great distraction. I tend to sing when I am running with music and this was no exception. I am sure that I must have looked like a lunatic belting out AC/DC's "The girls got rhythm" in the middle of the forest.

I finished the second loop in 65 minutes at 2:05 into the race. I had my cooler at the start finish and decided to use two gels per lap and was drinking a bottle of Gatorade every loop. My stops were no longer than a minute.

The next loop was still easy, but I was starting to feel the affects of the soft snow. There was a stretch about 1 mile long 2 miles from the end of the loop that was so soft and so tough. I was just taking baby steps trying to not extend too much energy. I finished the loop in another 65 minutes, 3 hours and 10 minutes into the race. I took 2 salt tabs, filled up my bottle, drank 1/2 a bottle of boost and headed out again. I started to notice a bit of fatigue, but I also realized that I felt great. This race was my type of race. I'm not that fast, but I'm pretty strong. The fast guys were using a lot of energy trying to run hard in the soft snow. I knew that they were going to burn themselves out. I was just trying to conserve energy and stay in my comfort zone. I noticed people slowing down and I also realized that I wasn't slowing down at all. I finished the fourth loop at 4 hours and 22 minutes. I realized my goal of 5 hours was out of reach, but still felt good about how I was doing. I also didn't realize how much the soft snow was slowing everybody. As was working on my last loop all I could think about was that I couldn't let myself feel tired. I plan on racing the Leadville 100 in August. It is one of the hardest races in America and I was thinking about how I would feel at mile 30 of that race and it might be how I currently felt. I pretended that I still had over 70 miles to go and that helped me just stay focused. I also made a mental promise to myself that if I dropped out of today's race for any reason that I didn't deserve to go to leadville.



As I crested the hill I realized that I only had less than 3 miles to go and I was going to finish strong. I passed two people on the last loop. I had no idea what number loop they were on, but I was going so strong in comparison I guessed that they were not on their final lap. It turns out that they were. I didn't care what place I was in. I only cared that I had got the monkey off my back and I had finished the race. When I came across the line I saw 5:29 on the clock. I had finished in less than 5 1/2 hours and I was happy. I thanked the volunteers for helping all day and then asked what place I finished in. I was super surprised to find out that the winner had crossed the line in 4:59 and I had finished fourth!

I dragged my cooler back to my car, where I couldn't wait to get out of my wet clothes. Unfortunately I was stuck in the back seat with my left quad locking up every time I tried to take off my socks and shoes. I drank a bunch of gatorade and made some calls until it stopped. I'm sure I looked like a moron clutching and rubbing my quad with my shorts half pulled down in the back seat. But then again, at these types of events that type of behavior is not that uncommon.

It was one of those days where I actually followed my plan, ran my own race, and was rewarded with a great finish. It is a great way to start off the year and I am psyched for more to come.

Momentum

I have no idea why we have this tradition of "New Years Resolutions". Why in Gods name would only contemplate what we want to achieve in our lives once a year? Every morning when we wake up we can decide to do the same thing. That being said, I am going to use this end of year time to finally write a new blog post. I can't believe that the last time I wrote was in August!

I might as well get it out of the way right now for any of you who read my blog regularly. I have not moved forward at all with the book. After the 30th blog post I took some time off and contemplated the entire experiment. I feel it was a success and I am proud of what I wrote. But, I discovered that what I want to write was not what most people were interested in. It seemed to me that when I wrote about my personal experiences with my father and my love of Amy and how those two combined to create my positive outlook on life people responded and were moved. When I tried to convey my thoughts about how I feel about certain aspects of life they didn't. I even say at the beginning of the blog that I don't want to write an autobiography. I don't think my life is any more exceptional than anybody Else's. Every one of us could write an autobiography that would be interesting. I still want to write a book that can help people realize that they can accomplish anything, but I want to figure out how I did it and then systemize it for others. For me, its not enough to just motivate.

In talks with my Mother about what I want to accomplish with the book she told me that I sounded an awful lot like Tony Robbins. I had never read anything of his and only knew who he was from seeing him on TV and his books at the store. I had never even opened one of his books to see what he was about. About two weeks ago I started to read "Awaken the Giant Within" and I am completely sucked into it. He has a LOT of the same outlooks on life as me. He even references how people sometimes have to go through tragic experiences to figure out what they want out of life. I wrote a blog post on almost the exact same thing 4 months ago. I had no idea! The cool thing about this book is that he has built a system and actions to help you become aware of and change how you think. I am only about 25% into it, but I can't help feel that this is the book that I wanted to write. It takes a little bit of wind out of my sails, but at least I have found something powerful to consider for my life. I bought another copy of the book for Amy and she is reading it too. Our intention is to have one night a week where we get together and discuss a chapter. Like a book club. This way we can both help and support each other. Were dedicating time to work ON our life not IN our life.

Amy and I were also talking a couple days ago about how the law of attraction is a hard thing to get your head around. It made me think about now many positive things are going on in my life and how being positive seems to bring more positive results. I realized that I have a huge amount of Momentum going. Another way of looking at this is that things are "snowballing" in a good way. This mental image really struck me. Think of how a snowball starts. One little chuck of snow is forced into more snow and that snow is attracted to the original. The bigger it gets the more force it has. It gets heavier and stickier. It is exactly like gravity. The bigger the mass the more gravity it has. This is very easy to see for a material thing, but I think it works exactly the same way for thoughts and actions. But here is the key. You have positive snowballs and negative snowballs. In both cases the bigger they are the harder they are to convert into the other type. The quicker you decide which type yours is the quicker you'll be able to either tear it down and destroy it (negative) or build it into a huge monster (positive). If you have a giant negative snowball you are going to have to really work on stopping it from rolling into anything bigger and then tearing it down. That also means that you are going to have to find a chunk to start rolling into your new positive snowball.

The only way to do this is to really start paying attention to your thoughts. It also means that you may have to start paying attention to who you are hanging out with too. Positive attracts positive. Negative attracts negative. You don't have to believe in the law of attraction to see that.

I can't wait for 2010. Actually, to be more accurate, I can't wait for tomorrow. Every day I wake up I am filled with excitement about what the day might bring. This year I'm going to tackle some big challenges. I want to open another store. I'm making some really neat changes within the company that will bring more value to our customers and set us apart from every other motorcycle shop. I am going to run the Leadville Colorado 100 mile foot race in addition to the Vermont 100. I'm going to run across the Grand Canyon. I'm going to spend more time with the kids and the family. I'm going to hire more people. I'm going to keep this snowball rolling.

And I am going to find inspiration in the people around me as well as do everything I can to inspire them back. Bye Bye 2009. Thanks for treating me so well.