30 December 2011

Looking Back - Moving Along

Got in a sweet stair climb workout that Mark Gilligan (Ultra Signup) introduced to me in the Oakland hills near his house.  We mixed in a nice hour+ run in between the climb repeat sessions.  Nice to hang out with him (even though I wanted to strangle him while I crawled to the kitchen the next morning) I could barely walk the next day and am still sore two days later.  Off to mark the Rodeo Beach course today with Inside Trail's other half, Tim S.  Been buried this week in race prep but we have it pretty much under control now.  Just need the course marked and then pack a million pounds of stuff tonight and we're done.  Oh, and then put the event on tomorrow.  Looks like we're at over 400 participants.  Weather seems like it'll be decent.  Looking forward to it.  REALLY looking forward to down time for a couple days after the race.  Then next weekend is the Epiphany 60k in East Bay (thanks John Medinger for organizing it).  I'm dying to race a long one again.  I don't have the long run training in me yet, but feel very sharp and eager to get out there.

Got into San Fran this week and ate some expensive, mushy peruvian food and drank way too many beers.  Good time.  This second go at California living is like a different world than the first.  With the races, I've been up and down the coast and all over the Bay Area.  Who knew there was more to offer than San Rafael in Marin (where I hibernated last time I lived out here)?

Speaking of moving.  I've moved so many times that I can't remember addresses (hell, even some towns).  I set up a new cell service (iPhone 4s rocks) and had to answer a bunch of security questions to prevent identity theft.  They're throwing out possible street names where I used to live and I was like, "That one with 'lake' in the name sounds right.  Wait, no, the one with 'greenway', yeah, I lived there for about a week…three years ago."  Then they asked about possible people I know/knew.  "Damn, lady, I live in the present!  I don't remember these people unless they owe me money!"  Anyway, I finally passed the (freaky long) questionnaire and got my phone.  If you didn't get the new number, then you probably weren't meant to.

This year has been a strange one.  Nothing terribly earth shattering occurred good or bad.  Moved around a lot, met a lot of folks, ran a bajillion races and miles, started a business, yeah, pretty typical year for me.  Looking forward to 2012.  Going to work and run my ass off.  Other than that, no plans really.  Only resolution I have is to be good to the people in my life and walk Pippit more.

25 December 2011

Inside Trail Hosting Rodeo Beach Event for PCTR

Rodeo Beach Photo Ingrid Taylor
Pacific Coast Trail Runs (PCTR) has contracted Inside Trail Racing to organize and direct the Rodeo Beach trail run event taking place this Saturday, December 31st.  Volunteers are needed, so if you can spare a few hours on Saturday to help, please contact Tim Long or Tim Stahler via the Inside Trail website.

Thanks and we look forward to seeing the participants at Rodeo Beach this Saturday!

21 December 2011

Trail Racing Survey

Yuck.
Please take a couple minutes to take a survey on events and what you'd like to see at a trail race.  Everything from trophies to tater tots is covered.  Tell us what you like and don't like.
http://www.insidetrail.com/2011/12/quick-survey/
.
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New Inside Trail Racing logo

Head over to the Inside Trail Facebook page (please "Like" ITR while your there ;-), check out the new logo for Inside Trail Racing and give some feedback on the poll and/or comments. Thanks! http://www.facebook.com/InsideTrail


Final tweaks on the IT website and should be up shortly (like very shortly).

19 December 2011

No Affiliation with PCTR or the Rodeo Beach event on Dec 31st

We have been advised (through a pdf letter from Sarah Spelt's lawyer) that PCTR will be putting on the Rodeo Beach event on December 31st.  As of today, Tim Stahler and I have no connection with that company and have been advised to return anything that we were going to use for the Rodeo Beach event (tents, clock, etc) for PCTR.  We were initially asked, in writing, to do the Rodeo Beach event, but as we are now being threatened by her attorney we will not have anything to do with that event.  We do hope everyone running in this event has a great day on the trails... there's no better way to celebrate the coming New Year!  


The depth of the whole thing leaves me speechless.


We are committed to putting on fun events and have legally gone through the permitting steps to ensure it for 2012.  









17 December 2011

Inside Trail Racing - New Event Management Co. on the West Coast

Due to professional differences, we (Tim L. and Tim S.) will no longer work for Pacific Coast Trail Runs following the 12/31 event at Rodeo Beach. Our goal is to put on well supported, organized and fun races for everyone. Sadly, we don't feel that is possible given the current situation within PCTR. We apologize for the confusion and frustration over the past few months regarding refunds and other money owed. However, at this point there is very little we can do to rectify the situation. We do not have access to the funds that were collected for any of the five cancelled events (events cancelled well before we were asked to help with PCTR last month) and therefore not capable of refunding entry fees. At this point, we can only encourage those that are owed money to continue to try and recoup the money they are owed.

The two of us have everything in place (shirts, awards, permits, etc) to hold a super Rodeo Beach race event on Dec 31st and are committed to putting on the event for runners who have paid entry fees. We do not wish to see any further events cancelled, so we'll be out there and we hope to see everyone who has registered (and then some) come out for what is bound to be a great day in the Marin Headlands.

We don't know what the future of PCTR holds but we (the "Tims") will begin holding events with our own event management company in 2012. Our events will include distances from 10k to 100 miles, all on the beautiful trails you've grown to love over the years (and perhaps some you have yet to experience).

For PCTR related inquiries please continue to try the events@pctrailruns.com email. If you wish to contact either of us, for any reason, please do so via our personal email addresses: tim@insidetrail.com (Tim L) or tims@insidetrail.com (Tim S).

And we apologize if you're one of the few who doesn't want to read this. There's a lot of warranted concern and uncertainty and we wanted to at least reassure the few hundred folks registered for the Rodeo Beach event that we will be putting it on.



Look for a release of the event dates on inisdetrail.com soon.
In the meantime, "like" ITR on Facebook - a good way to keep up on announcements.  http://www.facebook.com/InsideTrail



14 December 2011

2012 Schedule

Woke up with an email saying "Congratulations, you have been selected to participate in the 2012 Way Too Cool 50k."  yay.


It's been a fun couple of weeks with the Hardrock 100, Miwok 100k, and Way Too Cool 50k lotteries.  That pretty much solidifies my 2012 schedule up to August:


I'm looking forward to mixing in some trail half marathons to keep some edge to the long races.  The only one I may hold back on a bit is Miwok.  I'll need to be conservative at that race to ensure a decent run at Ice Age where I'd like to shoot for a podium - a stretch for me.  I realize the difficulty in that goal since Ice Age is the last race in which you can earn a spot in Western States, so there's gonna be some straggler big guns there again this year.  last year I sort of fell apart at mile 40 and struggled to hold pace for the last 10 miles and finished in 7th in 7:29.  It was my first time running back to back 50 milers and I've learned a lot since then and feel I can go into the race this year (even a week after Miwok) and run faster.  Guess I'll find out one way or another.


10 December 2011

Race Calendar Planning & a Baby-sized Race Report from a Half Mar.

So, no Western States for me.  Frankly, I'm relieved.  Hardrock means much more to me and now I don't have to worry about running both.  I liked how the 50 mile races on back to back weekends last May worked out, so I'm planning on doing Miwok (yes, choked down that chicken bone price of 175.00), if selected in the lottery on Monday (dec 12th) and then Ice Age 50 again (super event).  Then I'll probably be running around Tahoe Rim Trail in sections for both recon and training.  Once Hardrock is behind me, I'll either be going after the unsupported FKT of the Tahoe Rim Trail or assisting Gary Gellin in his supported attempt in August.  That's as far as I've gotten with the schedule, so need to figure out what's up in the last few months of next year.  Here's the schedule thus far:


1/8/12 Epiphany 50k, CA
3/10/12 Way Too Cool 50k, CA [lottery]
3/17/12 Rucky Chucky Runabout 50k, CA
4/21/12 Diablo Trails Challenge 50k, CA

5/5/12 Miwok 100k, CA [lottery]
5/12/12 Ice Age 50 mi, WI
7/13/12 Hardrock 100 mi, CO
8/14/12 Tahoe Rim Trail 165 mi unsupported attempt, NV/CA



Headed down to Santa Clara County to run the Summit Rock half marathon organized by Brazen Racing.  Tough course!  The first 3 miles have 2,000 feet of climb.  Since it's an out and back, I was looking forward to those last 3 miles on the return trip.  By mile 1 I had edged up into 2nd with Leor Pantilat a mere memory as he slammed the climb and was out of sight.  I've lost no cardio fitness but my power is dull.  I couldn't shake the pesky runner in 3rd, so finally he bridged up to me at the half way turn around, which we hit in 1:01+.  He gapped me on the climb out of the next aid station but I just stayed conservative and steady until around mile 8.5 where the trail levels into rolling single track.  I turned it up enough to feel comfortable that I was probably gaining on 2nd.  I hit the beginning of the last three miles of mostly descending technical trail and let it rip.  I caught a glimpse of 2nd place's red shirt and slowly reeled him in, finally catching him at about mile 11.  He bursted into a new gear and we were flying down the steep trail.  He fell twice (yes, Rick M, I stopped to help him up).  He was no match for my atomic monkey drop ability in descents.  I gapped him over the last mile and grinded the last couple short climbs to the finish in 1:50, 18 minutes behind Leor.  With a 1:01 first half and 48 back in, I feel I was a bit too conservative in the first half.  Regardless, I'm happy with the effort after only logging 130 miles in November.  Results Here
Gear:
Patagonia tech shirt
Race Ready shorts
Asics socks
Bondi-B shoes
no watch.


I hung out at the race for another two hours, chatting with Leor, the RD-Sam, and other folks.  Beautiful day in the woods.


It's all about training now.  This year has been a test of endurance, fortitude, and mental vs. physical.  Next year the focus is on performance and quality.  Oh, and organizing big, fun trail events!



05 December 2011

Working the Woodside

If lifting thousands of pounds of equipment, trying to be in five places at once, graciously accepting both accolades and criticisms all in 30 hours of work over a 48 hour period sounds like fun, then I have a job for you!

We at PCTR put on the Woodside 50k, 35k, 17k, 10k this Saturday.  The week leading up to an event is, well, hectic.  If you let the fact that hundreds of people are trusting you to make the race perfect with everything from a flawlessly marked course to ample amounts of food at aid stations and post race, you can drive yourself nutty.  I wake up at 2am and immediately my mind starts rifling though every detail, details I've already taken care of, ones that need to be done, ones that I missed and can't recoup, and ones that escape the checklist I write and rewrite in my mind like an endless looping song.

Tim Stahler, sweatshop labor with Pippit cracking the whip.
Our timer and IT guy (who is gradually taking on more duties with gumption), Tim Stahler, our aid station coordinator (who would miss Woodside due to participation at TNF50), Todd Shipman, and I drove down to Woodside Friday to mark the course.  As with most things in the preparation stages, this task took longer than anticipated.  I, dumbly, gave myself the longest section of the course to mark.  I sort of wanted to see the Skyline and Wonderlich trails.  About an hour into the marking panic started sinking in.  I was only about 6 miles into it (fast for running through the thick redwoods that had suffered a major windstorm, leaving a thick layer of ankle-rolling debris, branches and snapped trees).  I still had a large section of the course to mark and in the dense woods late in the afternoon I was already having trouble seeing in the dusk.  To top it off, I noticed I was running low on ribbons.  Suddenly, I wasn't having fun any longer.  I bumped into a couple on Wonderlich, told them what I was doing, and that I was concerned I'd be stuck on the trail in the dark with over 6 miles of tough terrain to get back to the truck.  They offered to give me a ride, so I could finish the current loop and not have to run back (over the sections I'd already marked).  Huge relief, not only for me but for Stahler and Shipman, who were waiting for me for nearly two hours, shivering in their running clothes in the dark.

After a restless night sleep, I was on the road for the long drive back down to Woodside on event morning.  Stahler drove directly from his house in his previously packed vehicle.  We got there at exactly the same instant on time at 7am on the nose.  He hopped in my truck and we headed out to set up the aid stations.  We heard a noise on the winding drive up the mountain and I glanced back to see this:
Luckily, there was no damage.  We got a great laugh out of it too.
For an event with 450 people (heck for any sized event) we were short-handed.  I'm so grateful for the volunteers we were able to wrangle, including veteran ultrarunning speedster, Victor Ballesteros, who drove all the way down from Marin County to manage an aid station for 7 hours.  Former Ruth Anderson 50 Mile Race Director, Amy Burton, managed the other aid station with speed, efficiency, and bubbling attitude that only a seasoned event person could possess.

I scrambled around trying to do ten things at once.  Check-in was backed up with the lack of manpower and I was forced to delay the start times by 19 minutes for the 50k, up to nearly 30 minutes for the 35k and 17k.  Embarrassing but unavoidable.  It won't happen again.  I hate not starting on time.

Things evened out and calmed down a bit once everyone was out on the trail.  These events seem daunting when you arrive at the race site, then, suddenly it's nearly over after a blur of 8 hours of activity.

Later in the afternoon, Stahler and I had the opportunity to sweep part of the course and were grateful to have the offer of help come from none other than (the best free solo climber in the world, bar none) Alex Honnold.  I hadn't noticed his name on the list but he participated in the 10k and was waiting for his girlfriend to finish the 50k (she won the women's race and was 3rd overall).  Alex headed out and took care of the ribbons and any trash (there wasn't any!) on the unneeded section.  Thanks Alex!

The last runner finished just as we had packed up everything and were being nudged by the ranger to get out of the park at 5:15pm.  After the long drive home, the unloading would have to wait until the next morning.

After unloading everything the next morning, Stahler and I made yet another trip down to Woodside (about 9 hours of driving alone in the 48 hour period…) to sweep the course.  This time I was savvy enough to assign myself about 10 miles of course to sweep.  After picking up every ribbon and, pleasantly surprising, finding no trash, we drove back, had a big lunch and enjoyed the last two hours of the weekend.

Thanks to the wonderful volunteers, Scott Dunlap for helping out with registration, La Sportiva (and Mike) for their support and presence, Stahler for his level, sharp mind and indefatigable assistance.  Especially, a giant thank you to the runners.  I had a terrific time watching you folks enjoy the beautiful trails.

04 December 2011

Hardrocking 100

7th on wait list. Training commences today!

Here's the full list of entrants and waitlist:

Hardrock 100 2012
140 Entered (alphabetical):

Tim Adams
Darcy Africa
Honey Albrecht
Robert Andrulis
Kirk Apt
Darla Askew
Cam Baker
Jim Ballard
Jonathan Basham
Jerry Bloom
Steve Bremner
Scott Brockmeier
Gretchen Brugman
Levi Burford
Adam Byerly
Jared Campbell
Jim Campiformio
Noe Castanon
David Coblentz
Kerry Collings
William Cook
Bob Crowley
Dick Curtis
Aaron Denberg
John DeWalt
Mike Dobies
Dennis Drey
Mike Ehrlich
Scott Eppelman
Stuart Erskine
Elizabeth Everly
Leah Fein
James Ficke
Diana Finkel
Brian Fisher
Ernie Floyd
Geoffrey Foote
Clark Fox
Devin Gardiner
Susan Gardner
Susan Gebhart
Chris Gerber
Harris Goodman
Ken Gordon
Brett Gosney
Joe Grant
Dominic Grossman
Drew Gunn
Rich Haefele
Larry Hall
Corey Hanson
Garry Harrington
Jim Harris
Donnie Haubert
Mark Heaphy
Roy Heger
Rick Hodges
Sheila Huss
Kristina Irvin
Randy Isler
Shinsuke Isomura
Clemente Izurieta
Scott Jaime
Julian Jamison
Beat Jegerlehner
Jack Jewell
Brian Johnson
Christian Johnson
Cory Johnson
Lance Johnson
Dakota Jones
Betsy Kalmeyer
Kristen Kern
Robert King
Brad Koenig
Hal Koerner
John Koester
Jason Koop
Larry Kundrik
David LaDuc
Bill Losey
Kim Love-Ottobre
Dmity Lysenko
Ted Mahon
Glen Mangiantini
Brian McNeill
Karl Meltzer
Krissy Moehl
Tommy Mowchan
Warren Muldoon
Brian Murray
Ted Nunes
Barbara Heidi Olmer
Scott Olmer
Kerry Owens
Gareth Parker
Timmy Parr
Eric Payne
Nick Pedatella
Deb Pero
Steve Pero
Rollin Perry
Bud Phillips
Chad Piala
Don Platt
Jason Poole
Joe Prusaitis
Mauricio Puerto
Kris Quandt
Rickie Redland
Axel Reissnecker
Tom Remkes
Jennifer Roach
Geoff Roes
Todd Salzer
Doug Seaver
John Sharp
Billy Simpson
Alan Smith
Julian Smith
Charlie Sperry
Patrick Stewart
Edward Strickland
Doug Sullivan
Jon Teisher
Drake Tollenaar
Chris Twiggs
Diane Van Deren
James Varner
Ken Ward
Mike Weigand
Hans-Dieter Weisshaar
Steve Westlund
Jordan Whitlock
Adam Wilcox
David Wilcox
David Williams
Allie Wood
Blake Wood
Rodger Wrublik

100-Deep Wait List:

1 John Constan
2 David Hayes
3 John Hart
4 Rob Erskine
5 Kenneth Farley
6 Andy Jones-Wilkins
7 Tim Long
8 Scott Snyder
9 Martin Fritzhand
10 Loren Wohletz
11 Andrew Barney
12 Reid Delman
13 Whit Rambach
14 Simon Gilna
15 Nick Serfass
16 Anton Krupicka
17 Randall Dunn
18 Jeason Murphy
19 Ricky Denesik
20 Megan Finnesy
21 Harry Harcrow
22 Mike Farris
23 Gary Redwine
24 Mark Oveson
25 John Wojciechowski
26 Rhonda Claridge
27 Borkur Arnason
28 Tom Stockton
29 Joe Constantino
30 Stephen Young
31 Seth Hales
32 Liz Bauer
33 Tetsuro Ogata
34 Charles Leonard
35 Lewis Persons
36 Jeremy Pade
37 Jordan Hanlon
38 Charlie Vincent
39 Nathan Yanko
40 Jamil Coury
41 Garrett Graubins
42 Barry Oelrich
43 Lain Hughes
44 Colleen Ihnken
45 Todd Cook
46 Heather McNiff
47 Scott Rabb
48 Mark Moran
49 Neal Gorman
50 Thomas Schnitzius
51 Melinia Cabiles
52 Scott Kunz
53 Jeb Burchenal
54 Eric Lee
55 John Fegyveresi
56 Ian Farris
57 Michael James
58 Gary Lukacs
59 Andrew Heard
60 Chris Basford
61 Elizabeth Bouquet
62 David Wronski
63 Ryan McDonald
64 Mike Thomas
65 Travis Liles
66 Andrew Harding
67 Jean Francois Geiss
68 Chihping Fu
69 Kuni Yamagata
70 Flora Krivak-Tetley
71 Becky Wheeler
72 David Larson
73 Ryan McDermott
74 Craig Slagel
75 Bill Jordan
76 Scott Railton
77 David Brown
78 Paul Schoenlaub
79 Dwight Worthington
80 Jim Sweatt
81 Brian Holthausen
82 Jeff List
83 Chris Picon
84 Paul Ralyea
85 Paul Hooge
86 Jeff Browning
87 Masahiko Tamakami
88 Gregory Norrander
89 Chad Brackelsberg
90 Chris Rennaker
91 Troy Howard
92 Diana Widdowson
93 Daniel Brenden
94 Gretchen Evaul
95 Duane Nelson
96 Margaret Welk
97 Todd Gangelhoff
98 Kevin Twidwell
99 Allen Hadley
100 David Pease

To anticipate the inevitable question, here is the highest number on the
initial wait list to get into the run for the past few years:

Year - Highest # to start Hardrock
2003 - 75
2004 - 50
2005 - 28
2006 - 42
2007 - 38
2008 - 99
2009 - 27
2010 - 27
2011 - 36

- Blake

Blake P. Wood
President, Hardrock Board of Directors