2008 In Review

Looking back at the goals I set at the beginning of the year, it appears that I've done fairly well.

Have Fun Running
The idea was to focus less on PRs and more on the fun of running even during races. Done and done.

Beat My 2007 Total Mileage

I don't know whether I met my goal here, since I kept all my mileage in a running journal the first half of the year and everything I've done since June or so is in my Garmin. Will update on this later.

Explore New Trails

OK, I cheated here a little knowing full well that it was more than likely that I would be heading West when I posted this nearly a year ago. Still: CHECK!

Keep Up This Blog

I did OK on this goal. I wrote quite a bit the first half of the year, let it slide a little during the fall, but have picked it back up of late. The more I run, the more I blog, because I think about what to blog while I run.

Some superlatives:

Trail of the Year

Lakes Trail in Sequoia National Park. It was the most scenic AND I got to watch a mother bear and her cub. Also, it yielded this picture of Pear Lake:

Race of the Year

Muir Beach. Hands down. Everybody should run this one at least once. The views are spectacular.

Accomplishment of the Year

My first 50k over in Alabama. That seems so long ago...

Disappointment of the Year

DNF at Pacifica. Still a good decision. No regrets.

Favorite New Trail

Summit trail up to Wildcat Peak at Tilden.

Realization of the Year

I'm better at downhill than uphill (even though I'd thought the opposite previously).

Hint of the Year

Wearing my Cal hat BEFORE I even got in. Ballsy! I've actually had this one for eight years or so, before I knew much about the school at all. I suppose it was destiny.

2nd Ballsiest Move of the Year

Two way tie: (1) drinking out of some dirty stream at Sweetwater (I challenge thee, irony!) and (2) sliding down some gigantic glacier in Rocky Mountain National Park because it looked 'fun'. (I never blogged about this, but it was as stupid and as much fun as it sounds. Once at the bottom, it took me over an hour to hike one mile to the closest trail, since avalanches had washed away the trail that was supposed to be there.)

Playing in the Mud

We've been lucky enough to get a fair amount of precipitation here in the Bay Area over the past few days. And I'm not using the word "rain" on purpose, since it actually SNOWED! Right here at Tilden the white stuff came down on Monday as if this were Banff or something. (ok, not quite...but still). Mount Diablo is still covered in it two days later.

Picture of a snowy Mt. Diablo from a few years back.

As a result, a lot of the trails are pretty muddy. I'd almost forgotten what running on muddy trails was like. Back South we got to enjoy that rather frequently, but not here (at least not yet; apparently the rainy season is coming up). I enjoyed getting the back of my legs and butt sprinkled on with muddy goodness during a little run this afternoon. In the process I came up with a fantastic new phrase: sprinkled butt. (Enjoy that mental image).

A Beautiful Day at Muir Beach

This past Saturday, I joined a couple hundred or so runners for the Muir Beach 11k, 17k, 33k and 50k. My distance of choice was a challenging 33k complete with nearly 4,400 feet of climbing. Rain was in the forecast but I woke up to a clear sky with a very bright full moon.

Muir Beach

After what is quickly becoming a customary pre-race coffee stop at Peet's (I live only a block from the original location in Berkeley), I picked up my buddy Will who would be competing in his first trail race. He is no stranger to races though. A collegiate runner at Princeton, I was curious to see how he would enjoy the trail race atmosphere.

Will and I pre-race.

After a beautiful drive over the Richmond Bridge to Marin county, we arrived at Muir Beach shortly after sunrise. Beat, whose girlfriend is in my program and who would be running his (I believe) fourth ultra in five weeks, happened to park right next to us. Great timing! We all checked in and Will made the obligatory "everybody knows each other around here, huh?" remark. I nodded and smiled as I was reminded of how welcoming the Bay Area trail community has been over the past six months (thanks, everybody, you know who you are!).

At 8.30, we were off and immediately began to climb. It was a great way to warm up and check out the views back to Muir Beach and over the ocean. The first few miles were nothing short of spectacular. The course took us on a single track trail sitting on top of high cliffs above the ocean. All you heard were runner's feet hitting the trail and the ocean waves crashing down below us. A trail runner's dream.

The first few miles

Soon after, we hit the Tennessee Valley aid station. Now, you gotta understand. I'm a newly arrived runner from the East Coast having read many, many race reports about the races out here. Western States, Miwok 100, Dipsea...these are places I have only dreamed about a few months ago and now I'm here running on the same trails on which these races take place. I feel like I've read about Tennessee Valley aid stations dozens of times and now it was my turn to refuel here.


Then it was time to climb again. Here I met and ran with Jochen for a little bit. We both hail from the same country and it was fun to speak some deutsch. After about 15 minutes of that I pulled away on a down hill and would run by myself the rest of the way. It was a great way to reflect on my first few months here on the West Coast, take a mental break from finals and think about how fortunate I am...in so many ways.





I would run like that for about 12 or so miles, lost in thought and happy, before I finished in a bit over 3.30.

At the finish, I met Will and we swapped race stories over some chili. A perfect day!

Stoked for Muir Beach

This will be my final race for the year, but it feels different than that. Training has been good, streak is intact and I'm feeling pretty strong. Slowly but surely, I'm starting to get into shape again. Hopefully a school holiday party on Friday won't hurt too much...

Everyone continues to rave about the beauty of this course, which only increases my excitement. Can we go now? Please?

Muir Beach is actually the beach of choice in this household, so I'm familiar with the surroundings, although I have yet to venture out onto those trails. Can't wait!!

See you on Saturday!

Giddy!

I'm so excited about my long run tomorrow that I already laid out my stuff. It's been a while.


(p.s. iPhones need flash)

Another Self-Promoter

David Goggins is apparently taking Dean's lead.


[added later 12/15]
So, a big discussion started over on Scott's blog about this. David Goggins actually replied and clarified a lot of things. I thought it was appropriate to print that here:

Since this is about me, I think that it is good for me to say some things. First, I want to thank the people who have actually met me and came to my defense. For everybody else, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I haven't earned 1 dime from Ultrarunning. As a matter of fact, my family has spent thousands of dollars trying to raise money for this foundation. The 100 Mile man is not who I am,,, So I am not the self proclaimed 100mileman. The 100 Mile man is actually a foundation that was started by a man who wanted to raise a million dollars by running running a 24 hour race. His goal was to run a 100 miles in 24 hours. This man called me because he heard about what I was doing. He asked if I would help support thier foundation. As you can see I said yes. If you have looked on the 100mileman website, you have seen a lot of information about me that I myself did not put on the website. By the way,,,, I do not have a website, nor did I start a facebook page on myself. I do not have an ego. Compairing me to Dean K is just plain funny. They guy makes a living off of running and writing books. I make a living in the military. Being in the military, you can not be sponsored by anyone and except money from sponsors. By the way.... I'm sorry that me getting 3 hours of sleep offends people. In order for me to do my job and train for these events, that is what I have to do. I do not run for the military. They ask me at times to do things for them and I do, but it is not my job to be an athlete for them and I do not trian during work hours. When I go to races, I must take leave and pay for it out of my pocket. When I raise money for the foundations, I also race on my dime. The 100 mile man foundation has been supportive of me raising awareness and raising money for the Special Operations Warrior Foudnation. It truely amazes me that grown people have the time to put this kind of crap on line about someone they have never met. I choose running 100 mile races to raise money because it was a hard thing to do and because it was a sport where people just did their own thing. That is the best thing about this sport, you are on your own. Sorry to have to explain myself, but I want people to at least have the correct facts when they decide that I'm a bad guy or a self promoter for my own personal gain. The 100 mile man foundation put that I was one of the top 20 ultra runners because ultra running magazine listed me in the top 20 last year. I'm not saying it to kiss my ass. I know how they pick the top athletes and I raced a lot in 2007. I by no means have ever said that about myself. It is true that I don't like to run. I weighed 280 lbs in 2005. You will see how much I enjoy running when you stop seeing my name in the results when I reach my personal goal of the amount of money I would like to raise. I didn't see it fit to have a bake sale when 11 fellow SEAL's were killed in the war. So, I decided to pick something hard to honor the hard men that they were. And the hard time their families would be going through. Once again I want to thank those of you who support my efforts and no me for who I am, not what they read.

NGM: Ozarks Highlands Trail

I'm a little behind on my National Geographic reading, but the October 2008 issue has a really interesting article on the Ozarks Highlands Trail. I drove through the Ozarks as I trekked across the United States last summer, but unfortunately did not have any time to stop.

(c) ngm.com

Anyways, the article talks about how the trail was built by a volunteer group, and how it came about in general. There are also some fun facts about trails in general:

• 92% of the US population lives within 35 miles of a trail (up from 16% in 1970!!)
• This year marks (only) the 40th anniversary of the national trails system, which incorporates 1,077 trails totaling more than 66,000 miles (I'm getting tired just reading that).
  

Definitely check it out.