Bear 100 - It's Nearly Here. Pre-Race.

Caution: If you're offended easily, then go away.

Well, considering I convinced my stoic buddy, Brandon, to write a pre-race post for his stab at Run Rabbit Run 100, I figured it's only fair that I jot something down. I'll probably leave this (and maybe the race report) up on this blog for a couple weeks, then strip it down and file it away with private settings like the rest of the introverted dribble here.

It's been a while since I crossed the finish line of a 100 miler. Looking back with a clear mind, facilitated by a big chunk of time away from foot races, I can see that I didn't want to run these things (ultras) anymore beginning while I was on the start line of Pine to Palm in 2012. I wasn't excited or even mildly interested in racing that day and should've just gone back to the hotel. But, instead, I steamrolled that disaster of a day with a fine plan to do Leadman in 2013. That was equally bad. The training was forced and uninspired, hammered out solely to build a force of confidence in an attempt to imitate an athlete. It ended up being a huge waste of time. April of 2013 was my last 100 miler at Zion. I was slow from the start and weak at the finish and had absolutely no fun. So, after trying to force myself out of the funk by re-stacking my race schedule, I was done with ultras. It's been a combination of pushing myself to extremes physically and my disdain for the general evolution of ultra's image and mainstream culture.

I spent the next two years running strictly for sanity and mild fitness, riding and racing mountain bikes, playing tennis, going to the gym, riding my dirt bike, and generally balancing out my life that was previously tipped so far into running that it wasn't healthy. I needed to get that fire to compete back, that desire to run fast all the time just because it's pure fun.

I even raced the dirt bike. It was horrifying.

Yeah, I have written and said that I believe 100s are damaging to the body. I still completely believe that. I know it. But it's like owning a really expensive watch and keeping it in a drawer because it'll get scratched with wear. I'll risk the damage now because I'll be old and broken down some day and the only thing I'll have are the memories of all the exciting, dangerous, and potentially harmful things I've done. I'd rather have those memories than sit in a drawer my entire life. Hurting, suffering, and riding the line between success and failure is living. Playing it safe all the time just gets you to the grave in good shape.

Even though I know these things damage the body, it's been so long since I've experienced the train wreck of post-100 body debris, that I'm somewhat like a naive newbie once again, bright-eyed and eager to bound across the finish line blowing kisses to the crowd, smacking high fives, and drinking an ice cold beer that is so new that even sausage tight clothed hipsters haven't had a chance to snub you for liking it.

Suddenly, back in July I decided I wanted to relive the pain and registered for the Grand Mesa 50 miler (part of the 100 miler and 60k event, too), a race that has incredibly remained under the radar of the general clown outfitted ultra crowd. It's gritty and hard and beautiful. So, off my steady diet of 6 mile flat road jogs over the last year, I conservatively ran the 50 miler and it was great. It went great, took 1st. I felt great. I think the body just gets so calloused to the pain over time that it simply accepts it like a stoic father quietly reading the newspaper in a room of screaming children.

Here's the link to my video race report.

Then the perfect storm came. Fired up off my race (I even hung up the award above my desk), I got an email from one of my athletes who informed me he couldn't run the Bear 100 - The Pope was coming to his town that weekend and he had to work. Like a lightning strike leaving an image of Baby Jesus on a barn wall, I took it as a sign and offered to purchase his Bear entry, including the bus trip back to the start line and the unholy ultrasignup fees. So, now I was registered for a 100 once again. That's how it went down, pure coincidence. I needed to somehow get a qualifier for Hardrock so I could enjoy another near fatal experience again and now was the opportunity.

Now it was time to get serious again with training. Only this time it seemed different. I was really eager to train. I looked forward to the trail runs, looked forward to the gym, looked forward to nutrition focus. It aways seemed a little like a job in the past but now it was pure fun. Go figure. In my training I like to inject races, so I looked up some local race events and settled on the Silverton Alpine 50k five weeks out from Bear and the Kokopelli Classic trail race the following weekend four weeks out. They wen't well, got 2nd in both of them. More importantly, my competitive fire was stoked to lava hot highs. I ran the last parts of the Kokopelli race so hard that I twinged my right hammy but it cleared up later that week.

My training has been a focus of the most technical trails every week with at least 1,000 feet of sustained climb every day, two days of threshold for 30 mins, and a longish run equal to around 3.5 hours with substantial climb on tech trails. The trails here are substantially more technical than anywhere I've run in the country. Substantially more. When I first moved here, I fancied myself a very good mountain biker. I flipped over the bars on a trail called Free Lunch on my first ride. They are rocky, ankle crushing trails with sweet (if you consider 3ft drop offs, baby heads, and death cookies sweet) climbs and descents. Miles and miles of them. This is the ideal training for Bear because blowing out quad muscles is probably the number one issue on that course. The descents are relentless and the last, hellish descent over the final five miles to the finish can either be a nice 50 min cruise or a three hour horrible plod.

Here's an image from the top of my run on Eagles Tail that I do at least 5x a week.

Photo: www.gjhikes.com

Here's my gym on a vacant weekend afternoon.

My 22" pythons scared everyone off

Now, all the training is done. I jogged up Eagle Tail/Wing one last time yesterday. Just 5 days until the race and I feel good. I've been fine tuning my projected splits for the race for three weeks now and feel solid about them. They are really tight and don't include idle time (aid stations, peeing, standing around looking at the stars), so I'll need to create a cushion of time for those things within the run itself. They seem ambitious and maybe they are, but so did my first splits from my very first 100 miler, which happened to be the Bear in 2010. I had splits set up for that race to finish in 23:30. I finished in 23:05 with a roughly even split of 11.5 hrs for the first and second halves. That first race I spent 1:15 in aid stations(!) and was lost off course twice for, conservatively, 20 mins. I also ran it very novice-pussy-like (sorry if that offends any feminists - it was not intended as a pejorative term for women's koochies but it seemed to fit the tone and intent of this post. So it stays), with a lot of wasted time walking because "it hurt". So, based on my training, my mindset, knowledge of previous wasted time opportunities, and hours of studying splits on that course, I've come up with 21:05 for a projected finish next week. That's of course based on perfect race conditions and no abnormal problems like breaking a leg. It's a little scary putting out tough splits in the public's eyeballs but I might as well put it all out there. I'll either look like an idiot by DNFing or convince folks into thinking I'm smart for running 21:05. I'm sure most will still think I'm an idiot, regardless of the finish. And that hurts.

Here's a pic of my splits and notes.

Here's a pic of my fueling plan (add in a few Clif bars).

Man, for a guy who can wear just about anything on his feet with zero issues, I've had a tough time figuring out which shoes to wear. since I haven't been racing, I've just been wearing really old shoes and not worrying much about it. Now that I have no sponsors and no affiliation with any companies, it's both liberating and exhausting. I can choose whatever I want to run in but that's a double edged sword. Somehow, I got it in my head that I should wear Hokas at Bear, so I got some Hokas. Believing I have feet that can deal with any shoe and be OK, I bought two pair of Hokas. What a mistake. They are made almost as bad as they look. They have managed to cut both my feet at the ankles, squeezed my toes together, and cause hotspot-near-blisters under the ball of my foot. I hate them. I tried to sell the unopened new pair (hell, I'd give them to someone if they paid shipping) but I guess no one wants a shitty shoe. So, I'm taking them to Goodwill.

I went back to my Go-To shoe, Pearl Izumi. It's "fitting" actually because I ran my first Bear 100 in some old Pearl Izumi Syncros. So, I picked up a couple pair of the N2 and love, LOVE them. Nimble and light, just like me. Whatever. Anyway, the shoe thing is settled.

Here's a pic of some non-Vegan shoes I tried.

Genuine alligator with a 75 millimeter drop

Well, that about wraps it up for the pre-race ramble. I'm not sure what type of tracking there will be of the race but, if you're bored next Friday, you can check it out at http://www.bear100.com/

Have a good week. I'll be busy getting more and more nervous each day.