Plans for 2013...

The 2013 Race Schedule is starting to fall into place.

February 23rd: Colchester 1/2??

March 3rd Cammesett 50k Road (Long Island)

March 23rd: Savin Rock 1/2

April 7th ?? Bimbler's Bash "10k"

April 13th?? TrapRock 50k Volunteer?

April 21st: Lake Waramaug 50k/50mile.

May 18th: 3-Days at the Fair 100mile/24 hours

June 8th: Cayugah 50? Too Close?

June 29th: Western States 100.

July 20th: Pace/Crew Vermont 100.

2 new recipies...

So I've been wanting to improve a few aspects of my cooking with the motivations for each below...

1. learn to use some new ingredients / branch out
           a. keep things interesting
           b. more complete proteins
           c. explore other healthy foods
2. Cook using more and new kinds of greens (other than spinach, broccoli and Brussel sprouts) 
           a. we obviously use a lot of veggies, but actually not that many greens...
3. Cook more from the bulk isle as Edge of the Woods, less from canned/prepared ingredients
           a. cheaper
           b. less processed
           c. less sodium
           d. less packaging waste
4. Cook with less sodium
           a. I have high blood pressure that is just on the edge of needing medication. Clearly fitness, weight and macro diet aren't the issue. The high BP is there even in times when I'm not stressed, ie now. The thing I have not addressed (other than by not eating out much) is Na. And it turns out that there's more Na in EVERYTHING than I expected... even milk and veggies, let alone packaged and canned goods...  but I'm going to do a whole set of blog posts about that.


With this in mind, I picked some new ingredients and decided to figure out what to do with them:

• Kale (from farmer's market at Edgewood Park)
• Lentils (from bulk at Edge of the Woods)
• Eggplant (from farmer's market at Edgewood Park)

So obviously I've eaten all of these many, many times. They aren't exotic, but I've never bought them myself and prepared them from scratch.


Dish #1: Ratatouille with Kale over Quinoa



Dish #2: Sweet Potatoes, Lentil and Kale Pra Ram over Quinoa 





  

Some new habits to work on...

With Vermont behind me, there's an opportunity to work on some new life habits. There are some cooking/eating habits that I want to explore for both money and health reasons.

 So, one usually needs to set concrete goals with tangible steps to actually achieve anything, but this is a "off the top of my head" list of things that I'll flush out later.

Cooking/Eating:
-Cook more food from the bulk bins at Edge of the Woods
-Cook with less salt
-Eat less processed and pre-prepared food
-Eat less sugar / refined carbs
-Eat more greens
-Expand/Explore new foods and develop new "standard" dishes
-Make extra food so that Marie can take food to work

Other:
-Read More books
-Spend less time on the internet
-Go to the library / play groups with Andrew 2 x per week
-Step up my brushing/flossing
-Core/weights
-Invite more people to dinner

Big/Open Ended:
-Job/Career/part time work

Possible runs for Fall 2012

Here's what's going on around CT and nearby this fall... for some casual 50ks on the cheep side...

What about some road runs? 10k?

Jay Peak, September 2nd, 50k on ski slopes and jeep trails... $75, Jay Peak, VT
http://www.jaypeaktrailrun.com/50k_ultra_trail_race
 
 Pisgah Mountain 50k, Sept 16th, $40 before Aug 15th, then $50, then $60... Chesterfiled, NH
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1UgRp5dvabVCphphxQw1B1Ih_BhcUFCkf_-sd4xLhXBo&pli=1

Sept 22nd, Virgil Crest 50k, 50M, Cortland, NY, $55 before Aug 5th then $70
http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=15974 

Sept, 22nd, Hancock Shaker Village 50 mile, Pittsfield MA, $100
http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=16022 

Sept 30th, NipMuck Marathon, Ashford, CT, $40
http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=16082

TARC Fall classic 50k, Carlisle, MA, $22, 5 x 10k loops, OCTOBER 13th
http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=14914

Bimbler's Bluff, October 21st, $45... changes to $55 on August 3rd
http://www.active.com/ultra-marathon/guilford-ct/bimblers-bluff-50k-2012

1. Bite 1: August 26, 2012 @ 8:00 am. Meet at the Guilford Lakes School, Maupas Rd, Guilford. This will be an out and back route to Race Hill Rd that is dog friendly and about 8 miles in total.
2. Bite 2: September 16, 2012 @ 8:00 am. Meet opposite the monestary off Race Hill Rd, Guilford. The distance is approximately 12 miles, but I have been known to misjudge these things!
3. Bite 3: September 30, 2012 @ 8:00 am. The flagship bite over Bluff Head! A gentle 12 miles starting at the Rockland Preserve entrance off Renee’s Way, Madison. 

Ghost Train Rail Trail, October 27th, $35. Milford, NH, 15 mile multiples and 100 mile option
http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=16401

Vermont 2012: Hypnosis and Honey Bears

I had no intention of doing a post Vermont race report. I love reading them, and from time to time I've written them, but I'm always ambivalent about inflicting them on others. But, with the completion of an epic quest, successful in this case, there's a sense of... "loss" is too strong a word... being "ungrounded"... where the singular objective lived in my mind and pumped out the fear, drive and near obsession that's necessary to put together months and months of hard training... there's only a lazy white noise. And so, perhaps to try to tie an emotional bow on the first half of the year and to really move on, I'm going to, in one sitting, bang out whatever comes to mind...

Prologue: The Months before Vermont...

crazy to say it, but me winning Waramung 50k

This year, between a greater understanding of how I respond to training, a positively mild Winter and being, frankly, unemployed, I quickly got to a new level of running volume and fitness. Some hard 4-6 mile tempos on the track in March paid dividends with a huge half marathon PR of 1:26.xx. More of the same combined with 20k, 25k and 30k race pace runs on the track (I shit you not) helped me dial in my attempt at road 50k at Lake Waramung which could not have gone better despite running every step solo: 3:48.xx. I negative split the 50k and honestly could have gone farther. I finished a road ultra wondering what I could have done over the longer distances... not the reaction I expected. I'd never won a distance race in my life, and with Marie 39 weeks pregnant crewing me and cheering me on, it was extremely emotional. With both wept with joy, partially from my accomplishment, but mostly at the immanent prospect of having a baby.

After a few easier days I started Vermont-specific training the first week of May only having run more than 4 hours twice so far in 2012 (including the 50k+warm up and cool down) but feeling ready to do the work necessary to prepare for the long road miles and quad busting downhills. The catch was that Marie hadn't had the baby yet, and so I couldn't be more than an hour out of contact at a time as she was first 40, then 41 then 42 weeks pregnant!! So I spent lots of time doing loops in West Rock park, particularly up and down the road hills leading to the overlook.

Finally the baby was born and while there were some sleepless nights we made a pretty cooperative baby. I transitioned from running lots of double days to fewer singles with a big trip to Sleeping Giant Tower on Wednesdays and a long run on Saturdays. This pattern continued until late June when I added a second long run on the weekends and most other days became very minimal recovery. It just was just about quads, quads, quads. Tuesdays and Fridays I would do a whole set of calisthenics that included wall sits and body squats plus core. Last year at Western States I had run out of quads at mile 75 and I didn't want to repeats the training mistake.

Vermont: Expectations and Outlook...

I had originally planned to go without pacer or crew, but before I knew it I had Hillary generously crewing me and Elaine taking me the last 30 miles of the race. My cup was runneth-ing over and I wasn't going to fight the stellar alignment of good weather, starting injury free and a great support network.

I'm a numbers guys. There's no two ways about it. I love and understand data. Data from realendurace.com comparing everyone who had ever run both Western States and Vermont, suggested that if weather cooperated, Vermont was about 2 hours faster and that I should be looking at split times in the 21 hour range. I suspected that my fitness (quads in particular) was a notch higher than 2011 and going into race day we knew the weather was going to be excellent. I suspected that I could break 21 hours if I nailed the race.

And there's the rub: Racing 100 miles is about doing so many things right, doing very little wrong, getting lucky and allowing your fitness to show itself. So basically run, don't screw up, solve problems and if things work out, you'll have the opportunity to try hard the last 20.

A quick note if you haven't done the race, but are considering it (I'm looking at you GVHers Eric and Mark). This is a road race that from time to time goes onto some jeep trails, a little crappy single track and crosses some harvested fields. It's a very very hilly road race, NOT a trail race with some road. Eric, Mark, this course was MADE for you. You can do the whole thing on ONE WATER BOTTLE and some GUs. You're only problem will be running too fast the first 50 miles and blowing up. If you're fit and want to run hard you can seriously think about getting in the 19-20 hour range.

Vermont: The Race...

So, at 2:30am I'm up and getting stuff together. There's some milling and waiting at the can. There's bagel, Ensure and coffee. There's pre-race pictures with Bimbler's and Marie. And 4am... we're off. And HOLY CRAP! What is everyone doing? I'm running 8:30 minute pace and I'm immediately in ~100th place. You people are crazy. So I enforce my vow not to do anything stupid in the first 30 miles and settle.

The course is beautiful from mile ~7 to mile ~30 as you see pastures through dawn fog, as horses and cows and 200 year old farm houses are warmed my the morning sun, as you climb and see sweeping vistas of the Vermont country side. And then that's about it. While I'm sure I got a bit of tunnel vision, the Vermont course, uses up it's "pretty" pretty early on. After 50k it's about business, not about views.

The first 47 miles went pretty smoothly, although I got a bit fuzzy at about 42 from working a bit too hard and needed to grab an early coke and some M&Ms.

I had put together some 21 hour splits that looked like this (based on previous year's splits):

Stage Road (Mile 22.5):  Est: 4 hours. Actual: 3:55
Pretty House(Mile 30.5): Est: 5:30 hours Actual: 5:25
Camp 10 Bear (Mile 47.6) Est: 8:45 hours Actual: 8:35 (12:35pm out of AS)

My weight was down 3 pounds which was okay, but I needed to keep drinking as it was heating up. I was getting pretty sick of solid foods and Gatorade... and then I saw my new favorite food:

Me chugging honey at mile 57...

HONEY: It turns out that I can chug a LOT of honey. When I couldn't fathom putting any more food in my face I could still grab a honey bear by its fat little waist and squeeze a quarter of it into my mouth. PS: I now know that a standard honey bear is 16 x 60 calorie servings which makes it equal to about 10 GUs... literally food for thought... at each aid station that had one, I would ask for the honey bear and violate it, much to the awe and horror of those around me. One long time volunteers said "Wow, I just didn't expect a person to do that."

There are some slow grinds after 10 Bear the first time but after you fight through that you do a 2+ mile downhill road run coming into Tracer Brook ~57. Coke, Honey Bear, Crew stuff and I was out to tackle "Heart Break Hill". This amounted to about 2+ miles of uphill hiking on road and then 1+ mile downhill into Margaritaville. I had been pushing fluids to keep my weight up, and this had bloated my stomach and I had gotten behind on calories. When Hillary asked what I needed at mile 62... I just stared blankly at her. So I chugged 2 cokes and knew I had to put myself back together, by force if necessary.

Yep, you're at 70.5 at 5:10pm...

I think the next section was THE KEY to the rest of the race. I force fed myself 4 hundred calories. It was horrible. I almost vomited. I just choked down half a Lara Bar, some shot blocks, a GU and some Gatorade as a marched on the flat road. It was the lowest point of the race. Especially since I was 100% under the belief that the biggest climbs of the course were right ahead of me. So as the calories kicked in I started jogging an easy hill figuring the HUGE CLIMB was right around the corner. And I got stronger, but the trail actually flattened out so I kept running... then it started going DOWN... and the calories kept kicking in... and it KEPT GOING DOWN... and down and down on beautiful 2-4% downgrade trail and then road. I had mentally prepared to take 5 hours to do the 23 mile loop from 10 Bear back to 10 Bear (thus a 5:30 arrival) but the downhill kept going and before I knew it I was at the turn back... and I realized I was going to get to mile 70.5 at 5:10pm feeling great. TRICKS OF THE MIND!!

So I picked up my Elaine 20 minutes ahead of what I thought was 21 hour pace. On weight. Feeling good. Don't screw up now! Elaine and I hike strong but not all out up the big hill and then ran the beautiful farm roads at the top of the ridge. From 72-75 I knew there was a long and mysteriously slow downhill. Well, mystery solved: it's very steep horse trail that has been totally WRECKED by a million hooves. Unless you're totally fresh, you have to powerhike/break down the chewed up trail and twice we got stuck behind horses and twice horses wanted to pass. This took a pretty big toll on my quads but we powered through okay and got to Spirit of 76' (Mile 77 at about 6:50-55pm) we got my lights and stocked up for the 12 miles to Bill's at Mile 89. I didn't remember what was next on the course, but I told Hillary to expect us in between 2.5-3ish hours (9:25pm-10pm).

My memory gets a little fuzzy here, but Elaine and I worked pretty hard and I remember running a LOT of downhill road. My watch kept going off telling me to eat or drink and I kept saying "at the next hill, at the next hill" and it just never came... finally I stopped running to pee and then we ran downhill some more. One thing that happened was that I couldn't really read any more. I couldn't make sense of the signs at the aid stations, so I had Elaine read them and tell me what mile we were at and how far to the next aid station. We turned on our lights at 8:45 since it was a new moon which I think was about at mile 85-86.

Running downhill became pretty painful, but not excruciating. Just very very uncomfortable. I would have to do sort of a meditation / Lamaze breathing and vocalization. I did this the last 3-5 hours of the race and though it must of been pretty weird to be around, Elaine never said a word about it. Anyways, we got to Bill's (Mile 89) at 9:25-9:30pm (~2.5 hours for those 12 miles ~12:30 per mile pace which... I think this can be run faster if I would have thrown a lot more fuel on the fire ahead of time... but we didn't know). I weighed in, pounded some coke and quick snacks and we were out of there at 9:30-9:35ish. I told everyone we should shoot to do the last 11 miles (which I knew to have some tough hills) in 3 hours and to see if we could break 20:30 for a finish.

89-96 are a blur of steep road hiking with horses, getting passed and blinded by cars, yo-yoing with about 6 other runners and their pacers, grunting my way down steep road hills and power hiking through some ratty trail. At a dinky little AS I told Elaine "I think we can get to Polly's (mile 95.9) by 11:30 if we work". We kept working and grunting and Lamaze breathing and we got to Polly's at 11:15pm. With 4.1 miles to go, and some hills to go I stuck to the goal of getting to the finish by 12:30pm.

We were now "running" flats and downhills at a 12-13 minutes a mile and power hiking everything else. A little sign said "1.9 miles to go" when I thought there was a mile... roll with it. And soon enough it was a mile to go, then a half and we could hear the finish and see all the gallon jugs of glow liquid... I ran the last 200 meters including the slight uphill at the end and stopped the watch at 20:22:43.

Marie, Hillary and a bunch of wonderful Bimblers were there to greet me. I was in one piece but honestly the first coherent thought in my head was "Thank god; I finally get to stop."

Vermont: Thoughts and Wrap Up...

Me and Andrew the next day

Mentally preparing for and executing a 100 mile race is a grand act of self-hypnosis; you create this psychic object in your mind over the months of trainings, a vessel where you store all the toughness you've accumulated in training and where you can hide the more fragile parts of yourself that would otherwise recoil at the level of discomfort that you inevitably feel in the last 20 miles of a 100. When you cross the finish line you allow yourself to come out of this state, and almost immediately you become a fragile and suffering creature that requires help to reach the med tent 50 yards away and then spend the next few hours feeling the stings and arrows of what you just inflicted on yourself. The spell breaks and now you are broken.

And so there you go. Guy trains hard and exceeds his publicly stated goals while meeting, almost to the minute, his secretly held actual best-case-scenario goal. And then it hurt like a bitch for ~5 hours as I "slept" in a cot in the med tent, mostly because the prospect of hiking a quarter mile uphill to the tent was a non-starter.

I'm certainly satisfied and Vermont was a wonderful social experience with Marie, Elaine, Hillary and the other Bimblers. There's an ambivalence though. There are questions raised:

1. Should a race/experience be THIS complicated logistically?
2. Should a challenge cause this much damage?
3. What would it be like to run the race easier, meaning "not all out"? A 22 hour finish would be a minute PER MILE easier... would this be more fun? Or would it be unsatisfying?
4. Do I want to chase my Vermont time next year? [Almost certainly NOT]
5. Do I want a course with more trails or with EVEN more running? Maybe one of each...

What I know for sure is that after I heal up for a bit that I'm going to get back to running fast but on a lot less training. The difference between75-90 miles a week and 40-50 miles a week is absurd and I know I have a good 10k in me, certainly better than my PR from 2008. Other than that, I think it's going to be social trail runs and races for the rest of the year. A few 80% 50ks now and again to run with friends.

Another chapter ends.... another awaits... but on the other side of two easy weeks...

Alex
July 27th, 2012

Ultra Bucket List... May 2012

For no good reason I feel like writing down my ultra bucket list...


California

1. Miwok
2. Quad Dipsea 
3. Angles Crest
4. Tahoe Rim Trail 50

West

1.  Zane Grey 50
2. Wasatch 100

East

1. Vermont 100
2.  JFK 50                     
3. Something in Lynchburg, VA :)

International

1. UTMB
2. Comrades?
3. Something in New Zealand, Paul's?
4. Something in Denmark :)

Time/Distance:

1. 24 hour loop/track race
2. Road 50m/100k
3. 6 day

PRs to Shoot for:

1. 18m for 5k (current 18:22 from 2009, only one since)
2. 38m for 10k (currently 39:58 from 2007 only 10k ever)
3. 1:25 for 13.1 (currently 1:26:18 from 2012, only slightly hilly, windy course)
4. 26.2 (currently 3:14 as split from 50k :) 2012 )
1. 3:10 (<7:15 pace)
2. 3:03:24 (<7 pace)
3. 3:00 (<6:52 pace)
5. 50k... good enough = 3:48:33 (7:22 pace), 2012
6. 50m: 
1. <7:22 (GVH record, 8:52 pace)
2.  <7 hours (8:24 pace)
3. <6:40 (8:00 pace)
7. 100k: <9 hours? <10 hours?
8. 100m (road/track) <20 (5mph)
9. 24 hours >120 (5mph)

Lifetime, cumulative:

1. 100 ultras
2. >10 hundreds
3. 10 finishes at WS (or another classic as life dictates) 
4. Grandslam?
5. Direct my own race

John Medinger - Part Two - On the 2012 Lake Sonoma 50

John Medinger is the publisher of Ultrarunning Magazine, the race director and founder of the Quad Dipsea and the Lake Sonoma 50, and is on the board of directors of the Western States Endurance Run. Here in answer some of my questions about the upcoming Montrail Ultra Cup race at Lake Sonoma 50 on April 14th, 2012.

Your race has experienced two very related changes this past year; first, that Lake Sonoma 50 is now part of the prestigious Montrail Ultra Cup and second, that your quality and depth of the field has become astounding. Could you first talk about how you developed a partnership with Montrail and what, if any, changes this has produced in the race?

 

The Montrail partnership is pretty much a natural fit. American River 50 had been part of the Ultra Cup series, but AR switched sponsors to Patagonia for this year, so Montrail was looking for a northern California race for the series. And with the Ultra Cup culminating with Western States, they were also looking for races that were more like Western in terms of difficulty. Plus I’ve been good friends with Topher Gaylord (Montrail CEO) for years and years. And being on the Western States Board I had a good working relationship with the other folks at Montrail, so it was almost an obvious choice.

Both the men's and women's field are extremely deep with a dizzying number 'name' runners. The men's field may be the deepest in the country behind (possibly) Chuckanut, NF50 and WS with the women's field not far behind. With only two Western States spots available, do you expect this to effect how people race? 

Even though Lake Sonoma is a relatively new race, we’ve always attracted a strong field. It’s almost all hilly single track, and it’s the time of year when a lot of folks are gearing up. The addition of the Ultra Cup has only served to make it even stronger and more attractive for the elites.

There are several runners who have said they are gunning for one of the automatic WS spots. Some of the others may be treating it more like a training run or a tune-up for Western or some other early summer 100, like San Diego, Bighorn or Hardrock.  But at the front of the pack there is an especially strong desire to compete. No matter what a runner’s goals are coming in, once that gun goes off there’ll be a lot of intensity out there.

The course is rather hilly (10,000 ft gain in 50 miles) and conditions can range from hot to rainy, firm to extremely muddy. How are course conditions as of the end of March? Further, what can the out-of-towner expect and need to prepare for?

The course drains very well, so even if it's rainy it will only be muddy in a few spots. And typically the rains have subsided by mid-April. The big question mark is the temperature. The average high that time of year is low 70s, but it could be as warm as 90. If it’s hot, that will change the equation dramatically, as no one is heat trained this early in the season.

Otherwise, the aspect that an out-of-towner should be prepared for is the unrelenting nature of the course. There are only a couple of climbs that are tough but the entire 50 miles is either up or down. There is no place where you can just cruise for a while. It just keeps coming at you.

On the women's side the 'X' factor has to be professional triathlete and Way Too Cool 2012 champion Tyler Stewart who has stated ambitions of qualifying for WS. On the men's side Leor Pantilat will continue his progression to longer distances and battle the seasoned 50m and longer elites. Do you have any comments on the progression of these two runners? And, are there any match ups you are excited to see?

Tyler Stewart - Pro Triathlete

Tyler showed her chops at Way Too Cool. She is clearly very talented. But she’s never run this far before, so that adds an element of suspense. Having said that, she’s done a bunch of Ironmans so she’s used to pushing the effort for 10 hours.

 Stephanie Howe from Bend, Oregon is another dark horse, a very fast 50K runner also doing her first 50 miler. And you throw in veterans like Krissy Moehl, Darcy Africa, Joelle Vaught, Caren Spore and Jen Pfeifer -- it should be fun to watch.

Leor Pantilat

On the men’s side, Leor is nursing a piriformis injury, and is doubtful, which is really too bad. He’s talented and a really tough competitor and I was looking forward to seeing him up there with the elites on a national scale. I think he would’ve opened some eyes.

The sleeper on the men’s side could be Jorge Maravilla.  He just started running 3 or 4 years ago and is improving by leaps and bounds. He lives nearby and is really familiar with the course and may be ready to duke it out with the big dogs. 

When you look at the men’s field with Hal Koerner, Dave Mackey, Dakota Jones, Tim Olson, Nick Clark, Nathan Yanko, Gary Gellin, Jon Olsen, Mike Foote, Leigh Schmitt, Joe Uhan – well, you just know that somebody is going to have a good day. I think it’s more of a strength runner’s course than a speed runner’s one. Of course many of these guys are both.

Who makes this race possible? Talk about Co-RDs, aid-station captains, volunteers, or sponsors that make this possible:

 

Like a lot of races, Lake Sonoma 50 is a team effort. OK, I’m the RD, but my wife Lisa (Henson), along with Suzanna Bon and Greg Carter, do a lot of the organizing.  One of the things that I like most is the number of key volunteers who come from 100 or more miles away just to help. Stan Jensen, Tia Bodington, Pete Hazarian, Bob Agazzi, Jim Winne to name a few.  And the Rocket (Errol Jones) – of course he’s my best friend so he has no choice in the matter. He’ll be here all week.

John Medinger - Part One - On Ultrarunning

John Medinger is the publisher of Ultrarunning Magazine, the race director and founder of the Quad Dipsea and the Lake Sonoma 50, and is on the board of directors of the Western States Endurance Run. Here in answer some of my questions about Ultrarunning Magazine and the state and future of the sport.

First, could you talk about how you discovered ultrarunning and your transition into sport?

I think my transition was pretty typical for the era. I ran my first marathon in 1978, and focused on getting faster for a while. Starting in 1980, I would run further once or twice a year. In 1983 I went to Western States as a pacer and got hooked. Within the next year or so I completely transitioned to trails and never looked back.

Talk about the founding of Ultrarunning Magazine. How did that go from idea to the first issue? And, were there others there at the beginning who made it possible?

 

Stan Wagon, Fred Pilon and Peter Gagarin started the magazine in 1981. The first issue was published in May of that year, it ran to 16 pages. We have posted the entire first edition on our website at http://www.ultrarunning.com/ultra/reference/archives/0581.pdf. Don Allison was added as an Editor in the mid-1990s and eventually bought the magazine in 2000. We bought it from Don in 2007. I'd been a regular contributor for many years, and thought it would make a great post-retirement project. I was right! though it has turned out to be a lot more work than we thought it would be. The sport has doubled in the past five years. And we're really focused on trying to bring useful content and great photography to the publication.

UR must be symbiotic with the RDs and their races. Talk about what it was like developing relationships with that first generation of RDs and building UR from its roots to where it is now.

UR has always focused on printing results from races, all the results not just the guy who won. For most runners, it is a huge accomplishment just to finish an ultra. We treat every finisher with the respect they deserve, or at least we try to!

Race directors are a valuable commodity. Not only do most of them do their thing without pay, they really invest themselves in their events. We know – we're all RDs! Tia has done a fabulous job with Miwok, and Lisa and I put on both Quad Dipsea and Lake Sonoma. And I've been on the Board at Western States for nearly 20 years. There is a strong symbiosis between the race directors and UR – we rely on them to provide stories and photos and timely results. In exchange they get a forum for what amounts to free advertising for their events. With the huge increase in events, it's harder and harder to give each one the space it deserves, but each issue we intentionally pick some smaller low-key events to feature.

UR and a select group of voters determines “Ultrarunner of the Year” and the other categories such as “Performance of the Year” and others. What is that voting process like? Also, though there has been much debate, is it fair to say that the honor go to the “North American Resident” Ultrarunner of the Year?

 We have a nationwide panel of voters. Almost all of them are race directors, a few are other careful and veteran observers. There are around 20-25 folks that vote. We compile a complete list of all the performances by the top 50 or so male and female runners and send that out to the panel. They have a couple of weeks to sort it through. Many say it is the hardest thing they do all year! You have to compare apples to oranges a lot. We ask the voters to give primary focus on events where the level of competition is high. Sometimes there is almost universal agreement, like Ellie Greenwood last year. And sometimes it is incredibly hard to find a consensus, as among the men last year, when the voting was so close you could throw a towel over the top 3. It's not a perfect process, but it has given consistently good results. When the voting is close, it's easy to argue that the second place guy might have won, or maybe should have. But that's all part of the fun I think.  And yes, UR is basically a North American publication and the athletes must be North American residents (regardless of their actual citizenship) to qualify. 

“Ultrarunning Magazine” is (in my opinion) to our sport what “Track and Field News” what it to theirs, eg “The Bible of the Sport”. You and your staff have been at the center of an utterly decentralized sport, and are really the only people to see “The whole board at the same time”. Talk about what that’s been like.

That's a really apt analogy, I've been a T&FN reader for 30+ years. TF&N is the "Bible of the Sport", UR has used the "Voice of the Sport" for a long time. Ultra is a really egalitarian sport. You see the  winners hanging around the finish line for hours waiting until the last runners come in. I can't think of another sport like that. I think it's because it's just so difficult for everyone – there is a huge amount of mutual respect. 

Most races take on the personality of the race director; the RDs, in aggregate, really control the sport. That's been really good for us all, race directors are almost all runners themselves – they get it. Most other US sports have an alphabet soup organization in charge and it eventually becomes as much about the organization as the athletes. Thus far we've avoided that, to our great benefit.

The internet and especially the social media explosion of, say 2004 till now, has allowed for alternatives to print media, both organized and individual; Could you talk about how “Ultrarunning Magazine” has had to grow and adjust in response?

 It's a tricky world for print media these days. The internet has provided a great amount of instant information, which is a really great thing. But there is also a huge amount of "noise". In some respects, our job is to sift through all the stuff that's out there and print only what we feel is germane. Most of what we print every month could be found someplace online, in some format. We try to synthesize that, boil it down to what really matters, make the format consistent, and present it with beautiful photography and well-written stories. 

We do post a few things on a weekly basis on our website and Facebook page, as a kind of interim report until the next issue comes out. But ultimately, we're a print magazine. We think the time it takes to polish things is worth the wait, and hope our subscribers do too.

You’ve been witness to many of the trends in ultrarunning; One area that I feel is ready to reemerge (and I ask this in the context of the upcoming World 100k Championships) is the road ultra. Could you talk about the ebb and flow of that part of the sport? 

 Actually the trend is still drifting away from roads. I think the adventure element of trail running adds to its appeal. Generally speaking you don't get that on a road. At the elite level, most runners crave competition, so road events like the World 100K will always have appeal. But for the rest of us, the appeal of immersing ones self in nature and the adventure of being alone out in the woods somewhere is undeniable.

(related to previous) Do you think with Wardian, Sharman, Meghan Aborgast, Devon Crosby-Helms and others having success on both road and trail and influx of younger marathoners that we may see a resurgence of the times and competition of the 80s and 90s?

To some degree that's already happening. Ultra has become a bit more mainstream, and it is attracting more runners with a high level of ability as shorter distances. There were a number of sub-2:20 guys at Chuckanut last month. You've got guys like Max King, David Riddle and Leor Pantilat coming into the sport that were Division 1 track stars. Ultimately a lot of the times from the 1980s might survive, simply because there are so few flat, fast road courses where a runner can post a super-fast time. Most of the elite folks today are simply interesting in competing, over any terrain at any time.  

Stan Jensen [on his website run100s] chronicles the proliferation of 100 mile races (95 North American 100s as of this morning, not including longer races, stage races, or timed races) and all areas of the country have new 50ks being created monthly. What has this explosion been like from your perspective? What has been the most exciting part? And, do you see any signs of an ultra-bubble, if you will?

 It's been a bit hard to keep track of it all! And Tia Bodington, our Managing Editor, is often pulling her hair out trying to get all the results in the magazine each month and still leave some room for articles about training, nutrition, and the like. We've literally doubled the number of finishers since 2007. So there's lots and lots of columns of names and numbers each month. 

I don't think it's a bubble, but I do think it will level off a bit at some point. We've been growing at around 20% compounded for the past several years. Obviously that can't continue forever, the sport will continue to grow but the rate of growth will likely slow some. 

One of the biggest trends over the last 4-5 years has been the internationalization of the sport. Obviously this has been very exciting and “bar-raising” for competition. Do you see this contributing to the “professionalization” of the sport? Where do you see this going in the next 5-10 years?

We've seen an explosion of participation in both North America and Europe. I think Asia is on the precipice of doing the same. Obviously ultra is both time and energy consuming, so emerging countries will probably be a bit behind the curve until folks get more leisure time in their lives. But the personal challenge is undeniable, and is appealing to everyone. At the elite level, it is still hard to get a truly international field together, especially in the absence of prize money, travel stipends and high level sponsorship of individual athletes. You really only have Western States and UTMB. But as the sport grows in popularity, I expect we'll see more money come into it and perhaps that will grow. Transvulcania in the Canary Islands is a good example of what can happen, it will be highly international this year for the first time.

I do think we'll see more professionalization, some combination of more sponsored athletes and more prize money events. Our elite athletes deserve better, they work harder at their craft than most. This professionalism will probably grow somewhat slowly as, quite honestly, it is very hard to turn an ultra into compelling television for the average viewer. So, for the most part, the non-running related sponsors will still be on the sidelines. But that, too, might ultimately be a good thing as it will give us all a bit of time to sort things out, instead of having it explode in a dozen directions all at once. 

Old Pueblo 50: A Southwest Tradition

The Desert is on a whole different calendar than the rest of the country. New England is typically defrosting in February with the first early season 50k rust-busters in March and April (Connecticut's Traprock 50k for instance) and longer focus-races not arriving till June or July. Arizona, with its mild winters and brutal summers, had its ultra season in full swing when I visited Tucson in the first week of March for the 23rd running of Old Pueblo 50 mile.

One of the few 50 milers to give a buckle...

Old Pueblo (or 'OP' as all the locals called it) explores the single track and forest roads of the Santa Rita Mountains near Sonoita with 7500 feet of climbing that takes runners between 4000 and 6000 feet elevation in its 50 miles (closer to 51 as I was informed by many a runner, especially in the last part of the race).

White Thorn so big I thought it needed context to be believed...

I was visiting good friend (and 2011 OP winner) Sarah Dasher, and while she ran I would hang with several members of her club, the Tucson Trail Runners. I can't say enough about how great these guys were. Not only were they manning the 25 mile aid station but they were also sweeping the last 25 miles of the course afterwards. As we drove to the remote aid station we crossed a section of fire road that served as mile 7 of the course. A few runners were struggling. The Tuscon Trail Runners not only knew every one of them by name, they stopped the car, and offered encouragement and help to every single one. I knew I was hanging with quality folks. If you're in Tucson you should look them up for a run.

When we talked about the men's race I heard the same thing all day "Catlow". One name, as if self-evident. "If Catlow runs he'll be very hard to beat." On the women's side it was 2 time OP winner (2010 Zane Grey Winner, 2010 San Diego 100 winner) and Tucson Trail runner Jane Larkindale. Variations of "She's tough as nails" echoed in the hills. We waited at the 25 mile aid station in cool, calm, frankly ideal conditions to see how the race played out.

Dallas Stevens (left) and Mike Duer (right) of the Tucson Trail Runners manning the 25 mile AS (and then swept the last 25 miles of the course till the early hours of the morning)

The mountains are like Vegas for trail runners...

The ideal conditions bore fruit as runners came in ahead of expectations and some, like Catlow Shipek, ahead of course record pace. Per predictions, Larkindale was in the women's lead with Brittney Orkney and Sarah Dasher in 2nd and 3rd.

Catlow Shipek coming through (as in literally not pausing) at AS25 at 3h 11min into the race over 20 minutes ahead of the next runner.

Jane Larkindale, blood dripping down her leg, pausing at AS25. She would win, PR and take 6th overall.

After the first half of the runners came through, the day began to warm up and the high desert UV began to make itself felt. I decided to see some of the race and ran 10 miles of the course and then shortcut to the finish and started running back towards leaders. The course is stark with scrub and cactus, barbed wire fences and cattle guards. It alternates on and off the Arizona Trail and is very runnable if sometimes rocky. Spectacular views are constant, vast and almost agoraphobic for one coming from the tree-dense NorthEast. But tucked away are meadows and steams and gorgeous winding single track that relieve the feeling of constant exposure.

A meadow as respite from the high desert exposure...

 I almost immediately crossed paths with Catlow Shipek flying down steep single track a mile before he crossed the finish line in 7:21. His pace and expression were unchanged from 25 miles earlier and the predictions of his dominance did not disappoint. As I ran up course I didn't see another runner for miles and those I did pass were clearly feeling the long early season miles. Evan Riemondo held on for 2nd place in 8:07 and Ron Gutierrez took 3rd in 8:21.

I reached the 46 mile aid station in time to see Jane Larkindale pause, smile and cruise to the finish in a personal best 8:45, her third time winning the race. Britney Orkney and Sarah Dasher would maintain their positions for 2nd (9:07) and 3rd (9:32). By 46 miles most runners were torn between a long break and grim determination to "get this thing done" as more than one runner said. Fortunately the last 5 miles are some of the most forgiving on the course and achieving the finish line is a question of 'when' rather than 'if'.

Britney Orkney (2nd place) refueling at mile 46 (of 51).

When I felt my 3rd layer of sunscreen wearing off I ran in the last few miles feeling less than spry myself. The finish in Kentucky Camp was a welcome place to lounge for finishers and family alike. I chatted with finishers and volunteers and, in spite of their exhaustion and White Thorn scratches, I was energized to get racing again.

Nothing beats shade, salty warm food, and permission to sit still after 10+ hours in the Arizona high desert.

Old Pueblo 50, put on by RD Lynda Hendricks and the legions of enthusiastic and experienced volunteers, is a race that sells out in mere hours after registration opens. If you need an explanation for its popularity, look beyond the beauty of the scenery and weight of its finisher's buckle, and soak in the atmosphere of the experience. Capped at 175 runners (138 finishing this year) it has more energy than the super small boutique races but far from the near marathon-like frenzy a Way Too Cool 50k (700 starters) or the corporate weight of a North Face Challenge race (700 booths). It's a race where volunteers with HAM radios check off runners and know the distances so well they WORRY when you come in late to the next aid station (I saw this happen twice). It's a race where families camp the night before and bounce kids on their knee at the post race BBQ. It's a race with a memory long enough that it feels grounded. It's a race where you finish in front of a cabin, cross a chalk line in the dirt, and the assembled finishers and families give you a round of applause. And, as you plop down at a picnic table someone just might hand you a burger and a beer.

2011 winner Dasher (left) and 2012 winner Larkindale (right) [both from the Tucson Trail Runners] trade stories at the post-race BBQ