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.

4.14 update

recent life events:

-Sean Thom/Erin Stearns Wedding in Spokane...in which i was the best man. honestly i had been dreading this weekend for quite some time and viewed the entire event more as a duty than an honor. however, the weekend turned out to be a smashing success. the other groomsman, ryan fox, and i bonded and brought the ruckus. wu-tang style. kind of. here are some examples.

...we 'crashed' a family "meet and greet dessert party", arrived first, left last, and met more family members than both the bride and groom. i chatted up (in spanish) a gorgeous cougar from cali that taught spanish to 4-8 year olds and had lived in madrid for 3 years. the father of the bride proclaimed that ryan and i "were officially a part of the family" and so i replied "do you have any more daugthers". and then bob says "have you met my younger (19 year old) daughter megan?"...and then yells "megan, get in here, have you met ethan yet?...and then bob invited us back for thanksgiving.

...despite a horribly dismal dance playlist, ryan and i incited a PG rated dance riot and got the dance floor hopping, if only for a few minutes.

...my best man speech was VERY well received, and despite my lack of hilarious stories about sean thom (as he has never made a mistake in his life, i managed to embarrass him)

...after the wedding, ryan and i kicked it with lil sis megan and photographer friend rani while sitting on broken tiles in a tile dump, drinking cheap red wine, smoking cigars from the Dominican Rebuplic, and discussing the glory of Bon Iver and Zach Condon. 10 minutes the later the cops arrived, threatened us with MIPS (the girls were 19), DUIs, providing alcohol to minors, trespassing, and handcuffs. a mildly sobering experience. and then they let us go, and we rolled back to the church to finish our wine and cigars.

-i spent April Fools day hiking up the Sheep Creek Ridge Trail in 2-4 feet of snow with Abby, a one year old black lab.



-i volunteered at the Grizzly Triathlon on Saturday morning...and slung 30 lbs of nanners, 40 pounds of oranges and sliced 400+ bagels while scoping out some ridiculously sexy full carbon racing bikes worth 5-9,000 dollars...and received a beanie/running hat/3 pairs of running socks/rad beach towel for my efforts

-i also kicked it with Mike Wolfe, who turns out to be my neighbor, and one of the top 5 ranked ultra-marathoners in the country right now. holy garbage i was tweaking. we are going for a run next week. holy garbage.

-and finally, april is a crazy month for b-days...happy 22 jo, 24 lomen, 25 aly, 25 nicole and other....

running & fear

a healthy amount of fear can be extremely helpful and entirely necessary to accomplish some goals. after finishing my first marathon in 2003, the fear, trepidation and reverence i held for marathons completely disappeared. throughout the next 4 years i would register for a marathon or 50k and follow a running regimen highlighted by pathetically short runs and half-ass workouts. surprisingly, i consistently placed in the top 10 overall or top 3 in my age group and lost any desire to throw down big training miles. so with a simple click of my mouse and $110, i put some fear back into my life. the Bighorn 'Wild & Scenic' 50 mile Trail Run now looms just 13 weeks away.

so i've been running. and not like, 'lets grab our slick new NIKE tanks and running capris and go for a jog on the Naito Parkway or around the UM campus', but running...like suffering up enormous climbs or pounding the pavement for 2-3 hours on a chilly saturday afternoon or casually running 6-8 one mile intervals in under 6 minutes. running.

with the help of my sister and her ridiculous/impressive knowledge of the human body, i have re-embraced a classic hobby i had long forsaken. stretching. i've also developed specific nutrition regimes depending on what kind of run/workout i complete. i've curbed my frequency of late nights filled with PBR and cloves, and my body has never felt better. no duh, right?

four of the five members living in my house are actively training and preparing for races. triathalons, multi-day bike stage races, time trials, marathons, ultras, or crits. some as soon as tomorrow, some not until july. one guy is the fastest marathoner and triathlete in western MT. another is one of the 10 fastest bike racers in the PNW and consistently won college races while in school (at WWU). we've essentially decided that its pointless to enter a race unless you are gunning to win it...although this often times seems hopeless albeit a miracle, its still our goal.

so i'm training to win Bighorn. on that note, someone grab me a Bridgeport IPA

march, 24, and my truck

first off, thanks everyone for the birthday calls/texts/poems and such. i met my family at Fairmont Hot Springs and we kicked it in the hot pools/water slides and had a birthday meal/cake/singing etc...here is my cake in a croc pot pan.



however...on the way down my truck overheated and spewed smoke out the hood. this left jordyn and i stranded in Gold Creek, population 44 (no services) but we happened to arrive just before church started. the congregation gave us a warm greeting (it reminded me of church on Orcas (davies))..and then as the service was about to start we bounced...as my dad had arrived to save us.



please note the hat rack. rad. seriously.



we got a ride back to missoula from a friend and i returned the following morning to change out the thermostat. the most advanced maneuver i have ever attempted with a car. luckily my buddy simon did most of it. we swapped the piece, i drove one mile and proceeded to overheat again signaling problems far worse then we had imagined...such as cracked head gasket. im not going to even begin telling how much this costs to fix.



...a weekend retreat to Yellowstone National Park...with a stop at world famous Rocker, MT to get some Town Pump coffee...



and finally...here is a sneak peak of the "i regret nothing" v-necks with matching headbands. as you can tell, the response has been wonderful. peace cabrones.

so gregg and i are pretty much bff

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