life lately

this about sums it up....

Fashion In MT

Apparently i am now a ManPlanetShopper. thats cool i guess.

love you
ejk

see, wed the 4th
http://www.bettysdivine.com/

the 31st day of the tenth month

today

woke up at 6:30am, nauseous, after pounding a falafel pita from Pita Pit last night at 1am. skipped b-fast (not really by choice), hopped into my bike spandex and headed out.

9am. Halloween Hustle 5k. (costumes encouraged)
i strap on my carbon fiber aero helmet (see pic above), my 80's tour de france oakleys, gaze at my freshly shaven legs (its was the first and probably last time), lace up my fancy ASICS and wait for the starting gun. as i gazed around at 25 of the jamokiest looking runners perhaps ever assembled, i felt many things. nervousness was not one.

the gun goes off and within 800 meters another "serious" looking runner and i have gaped the field by 150 meters. At the 1st mile marker my watch reads 5:18 and i felt dizzy and disinterested. the serious looking dude begins to pull away, and i start to feel apathetic and increasingly nauseous.

by mile two i am 50m off the leader and cratering. my stomach has thrown up the white flag and my body reacts. VOMIT! i slow to a walk, bend over, hurl up my double espresso along with the standard amount of bile, clear the liquid off my face and gaze around. a pre-pubescent 17 year old high school kid that has probably never touched himself passes me and beyond that...crickets. so, i mount a comeback but realize that "serious" running dude is history and little charlie is moving quickly. so i pulled the veteran card, put my legs into cruiser mode, and glided on in while blowing kisses to the audience.

finishing time= 17:40

i finished feeling refreshed, disinterested, and finally warmed up. (thats the problem with training for marathons and then attempting to run 5ks). the Trick 'r Treat One Mile Kids Runs promptly began and thus did my responsibilities. Addy (Kaylee's daughter/dressed as an adorable frog) toed the start line and looked at me and said "race?". the gun went of and we were promptly left in the dust. eight candy aid stations littered the course but we did barely saw half of them as i created our own course. conveniently we came in 3rd and bested a few other children who had run the ENTIRE course. suckers. we scooped addy's prize and bounced.

things i am learning

after a 14 week hiatus, i return to my blog.

todays topic: things i am learning (about life/myself)

1. its very important to rest. i hopped on the scale recently and much to my dismay it read: 154. oh god. somewhere in between juggling 3 jobs, working 60-70 hours a week, and running 50-80 miles a week i've been losing weight. so i've become intentional...intentional about rest. its painful to rest when you legs get jittery and all your favorite activities involve exercising, but my body is happy. well, sort of. im now dealing with something else. its called a cold. so...more rest.

2. a man's mettle can often (but not always) be directly correlated to the wear and tear he puts into a pair of Carhartts and which part of the pants wear out first. i can proudly say i've thoroughly destroyed 2 pairs of carhartts this summer. unfortunately, the first part to tear was the butt. i'll let that speak for itself. also..while shopping for Carhartts at a ranch supply store in western Montana, DO NOT show up wearing skinny jeans or a v-neck.

3. expensive aftershave is worth every penny. so is whiskey.

4. i am an extremely impatient runner. through thousands of miles of training, dozens of pairs of shoes and socks and 12+ marathons or ultras you would think i'd have honed in on racing tactics/strategy. NOPE. i ran 3 races this summer and executed an identical strategy for each race (and not one that i would recommend). it goes: GO out hot, like WAY too fast. attempt to hold on with the leaders or front pack (most of whom are sponsored by companies that make clothing you are probably wearing and payed a lot of money for). about half way through the race you will realize your folly as you begin to blow sky high/bonk/crater/implode/whatever you want to call it. the next stage is the best...you attempt to resurrect yourself through whatever means possible. singing/pissing/bacon/coffee/potatoes/daydreaming are all great methods. finally, after resurrection is complete, attempt to save some small shred of dignity and finish strong. generally you will still place well in the race, perhaps even win your age group, but you will get passed by 12 or perhaps 100 people which is only slightly demoralizing. right. SO...next summer...we will work for patience.

5. shoes can make or break an outfit.

6. hanging out with kids is very very exhausting...BUT extremely rewarding, fun, hilarious and a great learning experience. try it.

7. spending money to visit family or old friends is money WELL spent.

8. curry goes with everything. almost.

9. zicam is the answer to all the world's problems. well, at least for colds.

10. i love seasons and i love the season changes...and therefore i love MT. only in MT can you have a balmy 70 degree afternoon followed by an inch of snow the next day, with sunny skies and 12 degrees the following day, and another 60 degree day in the forecast. oh montana. if anyone needs a weekend supply of gizzards or PBR light tall boys, jus give a holler.

love

ejk

9:58:04

i stepped on my parents scale with trembling legs that were still pissed at me for inflicting 10 hours of suffering, only to see three tiny digits.

154

...thus began my buffet/banquet/cornucopia of fat and carbs/feast!

there is a certain euphoria that exists when i look back at running 52 miles in under 10 hours in some pretty absurd mountains. as the hours and days pass by and i tend to the terrible state i find my body in, i wish i could say i experienced that euphoria when i finished but...alas...i didnt. all i was really thinking was, dear Lord, please bring the finish line to me and dont let this chick pass me.

i arrived in scott park with my father running alongside, crossed the finish line, permitted my mother to snap some post-race photos with her camera AND cell phone, and promptly collapsed. after taking off my horrifically muddy shoes and socks, i
crawled into the river and soaked my legs that felt as though they had been beaten with a meat mallet.

the first ten miles of the race consisted of trail, then mug bogs, then meadows with 3 inches of standing water and then trail again. i lept/sprung/triple-jumped/avoided/plowed through most of this with the greatest care in an attempt to keep my feet dry. and then since the race director and mother nature have a sense of humor, we crossed a river at mile 11 that was almost 4 feet deep in spots. i ran the next 41 miles with wet shoes.

through mile 17 i ran with the leaders, whom i later learned were sponsored. great. really great. we ran the first 17 miles in 2:38...blisteringly fast. after passing mile 17 we began a 3000 ft climb. promptly upon completing the climb, i blew sky high and spent the next 8 miles suffering, waddling, and getting passed. i dropped from 4th place to 10th while running in survival mode. at mile 28, john hart (a fellow missoulian and my training partner) passed me and we ran together for the following 14 miles. i pounded 6 pieces of bacon, 4 potatoes, and forged on feeling much better (i love trail running). john and i continued together through mile 34 making up ground on a few runners and climbing a few steep hills/mountains. with 13 to go, john took off ahead of me and i continued on, solo, excited to meet my dad at mile 45.

then the fun really began. with about 7 miles to go, rebecca wheeler (a phenomenal trail runner and course record holder for 2 distances) rolled into the aid station right behind, much to my dismay. the gravel logging road that forms the last 7 miles has been the sight of some of my most infamous/painful blow-ups in past years. in 2004 while running the 50k, i blew up with 3 miles to go and rebecca passed me on this same stretch of road. so seeing rebecca was not the greatest confidence booster.

with a 10k to go i met my dad who had run in to meet/pace me in the last few miles. i needed to run 7.5 miles in under an hour (about 8 min pace) to break 10 hours and to hold of rebecca. a big task to say the least...and thus began the sufferfest.

the last few miles of runs like this are some of the most unique moments of my life...my body is on the verge of collapse. i am almost dehydrated/sunburned/bewildered/surviving on gummy bears & sprite and mentally weak but my mind encourages my tired and broken legs to run even FASTER than during the previous 45 miles. the sun revealed itself and the temp promptly rose to 88 degrees with no shade in sight.

the only accurate term for this sort of running is grinding. so i grinded in the last 7 miles in under an hour, put 90 seconds into rebecca, and broke 10 hours.

9:58:04...mission accomplished
8th overall
1st age group (29 and under)

offering prayers to the giardia gods

yesterday

9 hours of construction under a 'blazing' MT sun at precisely 72 degrees, share a six pack of MGD with my boss and kill a few corona at lunch. with lime of course. rally home, change into running shorts that dont leave much to the imagination and run run run.

jo ran the 1st hour with me and then escorted me, along with kaylee, on mtn bikes for the ensuing 17 miles.

i've never felt so fast or strong while running. i clipped of 7:15, 7:20, 7:30 minute miles throughout the first 17 miles and didnt seem to be tiring. i was shocked, as was my bike entourage.

i reached my turn around, franklin bridge, waiting for the downhill to soothe/destroy my legs and more importantly waiting for the seemingly inevitable and disheartening bonk/crash/blow up. its at this point that your legs go numb, your mind flies away to a delirious and scary place, and the world seems to turn to shades of gray. only gray.

but it never happened. i suffered. ran. and suffered some more. i drank unfiltered creek water while offering feeble prayers to the giardia gods and kept running. at precisely 3 hrs and 12 minutes i arrived back at the trailhead having narrowly avoided blowing up. 24 miles and no trail wreck. an enormous confidence boost as my race now looms 8 days away.

...and now, time to recover...

a series of rambles

montana is putting up a facade of summer-like weather, only to squash our tiny and faint dreams with saturdays of 55 degree clouds and wind. remind me again when summer is supposed to start.

my three jobs are all in full swing. a shift or two busing at the KEEP, 20+ hours slinging coffee and supervising a plethora of eager yet somewhat disinterested college girls, and 20+ hours of what i have named "the demolition derby", my new construction job. essentially, a wealthy real estate agent buys trailer houses, some for a little as 12 dollars, spends 3-5 grand on new flooring, carpet, cabinets and paint while throwing a small chunk at me, and then sells or rents the trailer houses while amassing a healthy profit. 12 dollars! seriously. i think i may become a slumlord.

as my hereditary fortune would have it, i have been blessed/cursed/bestowed a balding gene and have finally thrown in my towl, and put up the white flag. i shaved my head (#2 setting) and now love the simplicity of my new hair dew that a faux-hawk just couldnt provide. the soul patch stays, of course.

the bighorn 50 mile now looms 15 days away. i threw down a 28 mile trail run yesterday with one enormous climb in 4hrs 40 min. the afternoon heat zapped me and i battled stomach nausea/dry heaving/back cramps for 15 miles but finally hit my stride around the 26 mile point. then just to bring me back to reality, i crashed and burned. hard. with blood dripping 6 inches down my knee, debris flowing from my hip, and my morale/ego badly bruised i cruised in the last mile just happy to be done. i am planning on doing another 26 miler on wed and a 22 miler the following weekend all involving vicious climbs and painful descents. i am still very much in doubt as to whether i will register for the swan crest 100 mile. after yesterday, i began to realize that currently my only motive to run 100 miles is just to say i did it. and thats not good enough. so i may shelve that goal and "settle" with two 50 milers for this summer. if i do go through with the swan crest, i will be relying heavily on the veteran pacing skills and trail knowledge of jcd. no pressure man.

i am actively seeking new jobs/life plans/locations/etc for the fall and winter and will probably leave missoula in sept/oct if anything pans out. there is still much to be determined and many miles to run before than. ciao cabrones.