Little video from our first day in the Rockies. The air is thin up here!!! Hope we start getting used to it by Sunday.

Wildcat Epic 100

Busy week! Can't believe its taken me all week just to find a little time for a blog post.

This race was awesome! 2 days, 50 miles each day starting and finishing both days in New Paltz, NY. Day 1 was hilly and super scenic in the Shawgunks. Day 2 was farms, orchards, rail trails, fun singletrack, and a cave.

Day 1 - Drove up with Kristin, arrived an hour before the start, registered, made sure I had all my gear, went to the starting line for the pre-race instructions, and then we were off. First 1.6 miles were neutral as we rolled out of town, and the group all stayed together behind a lead car.

We got to a dirt road, the pace car pulled aside, and the racing was on. Some dudes were jockeying to get to the front, but most were like me, and had been a little scared by the elevation profile map of the course. [Map with Profile HERE] Basically it looked like the first 20 miles were all up hill. So I just eased into a nice pace, and fell into a group of 5 doing the same. The climbing ended up not being nearly as steep or aggressive as I was expecting; the paths were smooth and the speeds were actually kept pretty high for the most part. Fun way to climb! The first aid station came at 14 miles. Kristin was there, gave me a fresh bottle of Perpetuem and some salt pills. I was the only one of my group of 4 now to stop. I was only stopped for like 30 seconds, and immediately after the aid station it started to get steeper and they all slowed down a bit so I was back with them in no time. Up and up we went until we got to a ridge with AMAZING views. Rode across the ridge and were still climbing slightly. I was feeling great, and very happy with myself for staying under control so far, and getting mentally ready to attack the downhills. First came some downhill switchbacks, then a loop around a lake, and then a blazing fast section back to the 2nd aid station. I stopped, Kristin filled up my camelbak while I got something to eat, and was off. More miles of fast downhill, and drifting gingerly through the higher speed turns. The crew I was climbing with was long behind me now, and I was picking off riders ahead. Then more climbs, some singletrack, until a bunch of women on horses came onto the trails. I came around a corner and the horses were already spooked, jumping around all crazy, and the women were all panicked. So I just stopped, waited for them to get things under control, then carefully squeezed by. At mile 47-ish the course markings got a little confusing, I think some hikers messed with the signs at an intersection. I wasn't the only one that picked the wrong direction; seems like most people made some kind of mistake there. I then caught 2 other riders, so we thought we were on the right track, and we kept going down the mountain, and popped out of the trails onto a farm road, didn't see any trail markers, so we kept going out to the main road, still no markers, we decided to go left because it felt right. Rode for awhile, nothing looked familiar. Came to an intersection and asked a driver where New Paltz was... He pointed us in a direction, we set off and eventually found ourselves back on the course about a 1/4 mile before the finish. Crossing the finish line I had 55.3 miles on my computer (5 extra miles!). I'm usually disappointed when something like course markings affect the outcome of the race, but in this case I didn't care, the day was awesome, and I rode my face off. I was like 10th across the line (came in with 8th and 9th place). Then I don't know what they did after that to adjust for the course markings, but they gave my official results for that day as 5th place. Which sounds about right; there were a few guys already at the finish line that I had passed earlier in the race. Official time 3:53:00 (actual time on my watch was about 3:58:45) Avg speed 13.9mph

Day 2 - Totally different experience. Same neutral start, but then we got to a rail trail and the racing was on big time... The pace was high, the front of the pack being driven by two Pro's from the Jamis Factory Team. I couldn't hang on for too long or I'd cook myself too early. So I let them go, about 12 of them. I was completely alone then, nobody behind me. Did some really cool riding in apple orchards and farms, not very hilly but lots of tall grass to add some resistance to the pedals, and hide all the sneaky little bumps and holes. Then back onto a rail trail for what I'm guessing was like a 12 mile stretch. I just put my head down and went, it was dead straight, no one ahead, nobody behind. I was keeping a consistent 19-20mph. Then we climbed up a road and into some awesome single track, it was slow going, but really fun. Highlighted by a ride through a pitch black cave where the course was marked by a line of what seemed like glowing chalk that we followed all the way through. Back out to a road where we found the 2nd rest stop at mile 37. I refilled my camelbak, got down some fuel, mixed some perpetuem into my bottle and was off. Long road climb into some hilly single track, I was starting to get pretty zapped from the heat, but kept pluggin away. After a few miles the trails led back to the rail trail for a 3-4 mile straight shot back to the finish line. I felt much better, and hammered it home. Crossing the line in 3:34:42, 11th place for the stage. Avg speed : 14mph

Ended up finishing 9th place in the GC (overall) with a combined time of 7:27:42. Official Results HERE

This race will definitely be on my calendar next year! Who's coming with me!!!

Now if you want to read an awesome blog entry about this race. Check out David Alden's Blog posts for Day 1 and Day 2. He finished very close behind me on both days. Great recap.

Darkhorse 40

Rick and I raced this as Team Powershot on Sunday. And not only did we survive I think we did pretty well. Finishing 3rd place in the Team category. It was two 20 mile loops of the track in the map below. I did the first lap, Rick did the second.

The start was about 3/4 of a mile on a slightly downhill paved road. So as you can imagine, I was having a hard time containing myself. I knew that if I really wanted to I could be the first into the singletrack, but this race has bitten me before, plus I did a marathon 32 hours earlier. So I was very unsure about how the body would react.

Right from the gun a saw 4 riders go off the front, I gave chase and sat in behind them until the singletrack. Then backed off to a more comfortable pace, and let two more people pass me. After about 6 miles there was a straight long climb up a fire road, and I could see 5 of the 6 people ahead of me right there, riding in a pack and climbing together at what seemed like a slow pace... I hammered and caught the group as they were heading back into singletrack. I started to feel better and better, and starting passing them one by one. By mile 14 (where the course went through an abandonded factory, so cool!) I was all alone in 2nd and rode as hard as I could back to Rick. Was probably grinning the whole way, as the both the trail conditions and the weather where perfect!

Rick took it from there and had a great 2nd loop, hamering with his head down he missed a corner and had to backtrack, probably cost him about 2 minutes. Not sure if he tackled a tree before or after that, but it left a nice souvenir on his forearm. One person passed him, which is strange, and must have happened when he was off course, because he doesn't let that happen very often. Rick, any comments on that :) ?

All in all, a fun time at a great race. And a nice little confidence boost for the Wildcat Epic 100 this coming weekend! Ankle is getting better everyday.

Long Training Run

After a nice 5 day break to let the ankle recover a little it was time to start moving again. The 24 Hours Around the Lake in Wakefield, Mass was our venue to get in at least 5 hours on our feet. Way more fun doing a long workout at an event like this than just doing loops around the neighborhood. Brian's goal was to stick to a sub 10 minute mile pace, and mine was just to walk, and maybe sprinkle in some running if the ankle felt up to it. The race started at 7pm and the race was to see how many 3.18 mile (5K) laps around a lake one could complete in either 12hrs or 24 hours. There was also a marathon option (8 laps).

Here is a photo at the pre race announcement. Lots of interesting characters at these ultra events.
Team GingerBalls pre start. Game faces on.
Sun setting, I think I took this on the first lap. Beautiful lake.
Coming across the finish line. 12:30 at night. Brian did 34 miles, I did 26.2. We completed the last lap together.
Avg Heart Rate was 101bpm. When walking it would be around 85-90bpm, when running I never let it get over 120, was usually in the 113 range. Ankle felt OK until the last lap when it started to get tired. Only issues were some blistering and swelling in my feet. But I guess that was to be expected; I was wearing technical trail shoes with low profile, stiff soles (i.e. little cushioning) Vasque Transistors for first 4 laps, Salomon 3D Ultra for last 4 laps. Nothing too serious though. I used compression socks for the first 5 laps, and then removed just the one on the right foot so I could use my Injinji sock instead to help with blistering on that foot. Learned that I actually preferred not having the compression sock on. No perceptible difference in fatigue, and was noticeably cooler without sock.

Here is some video...

Escarpment Trail 30K

I can tell you right now that this post will not do the experience justice. It was a big experience, and as many things that I learned, I'd also like to forget about this race. So I'm keeping this post super brief.


Elevation Profile. Trail starts at the right of the map, and ends on the left.


Yep, that's me and Brian feeling pretty good at the start... Weather was nice, and Kristin had just dubbed us Team Ginger Balls (a name we will take with us to the Trans Rockies). But after that things did not go as smoothly as planned. This trail was no joke. Incredibly technical, challenging terrain, just something I don't think either of us was ready for. We saw some nasty spills out there. It was a very new and enjoyable experience for both of us for a while. Seeing how much faster other people were covering ground versus us was a little eye-opening. I thought our fitness level was pretty good, but for this type of event, experience running on tough trails plays a major role. I found out the hard way. As we were entering the third rest stop, I took my eyes off the trail for a second, and boom, sprained ankle. I could tell by the reaction of the volunteers that it wasn't pretty. Learning that it was like a three mile hike down to civilization from there, I decided that we should press on... If I had only known that the most challenging part of the course was coming up. The climb up Blackhead (seen briefly in the video below), and then the descent down the other side, I would have definitely pulled the plug and stopped racing. That mountain was brutal. Brian was nice enough to hang with me for the race, and then patient enough with my super slow pace after the sprain, and then smart enough to decide that we were done when we got to the the 12 mile mark aid station. So after 3:32 minutes, we decided to 'DNF' and walked off the trail to get picked up. It took us 45 mins to get to a road, but fortunately, thanks to a volunteer remembering the name of the road (Stork's Nest) and Kristin having navigation in the car, we were saved. And I was really happy that was over with.

Now I'm nursing a sprained ankle. The good news is that it is healing quickly, probably due to the fact that I had no ligaments left in my ankle to really sprain. Because of so many injuries my ankle is pretty much just supported by muscle, and maybe muscle heals faster than ligaments? Who knows, just a crazy theory. I'm just psyched that the pain and swelling are coming down nicely. Haven't done anything but intense ice and compression since Sunday, but may give walking a few miles at the 24 Hours Around the Lake race this weekend a try. See how it goes. If all goes well I'll hop on the MTB on Sunday for the Darkhorse 40 which I'm signed up for as a relay with Rick.

XTERRA Sky High

Tubing is not the ideal day before a race activity, but what the hell. It was like 98 degrees, and our good freinds with an awesome boat invited us out last minute. We had a great time, even though I'm pretty sure I cracked a rib about 2 seconds after Kristin caught this photo of me holding on for dear life.

Didn't bother me at all for the race, or for 2 days after, but I'm really feeling it now...

Anyhow, on Sunday I left home at 3:45am and drove the 3 hours to Grafton Lakes (a little northeast of Albany, NY). Arrived, signed in, warmed up and was ready to race. The race started about 30 mins later than planned because heavy storms had rolled through the night before and there were some trees/debries that needed to be cleared from the trails.

Swim: Started with a 300 yd beach run then 500 yds swim, then 400yd beach run and 500yd swim. I took it easy on the first beach run, and jumped in the water towards the back of the pack and then maintained a steady pace. Was 10th after the first loop, and then 4th after the second and into T2.

Bike: Came out of T2 next to a buddy of mine, we worked together for the 2.5 miles or so on fire roads, but then when we got to the single track and hills I couldn't hang with him anymore, and just rode my own race for the rest of the 20K bike leg. Course was technical rocky and muddy/slippery.

Run: Super technical single track, with lots of boulders and mud, one long steep climb up a fire road and then back down down before completeing the loop around the lake. I felt great, was focusing on my footwork, and was making up ground on the 2 people ahead of me, but just didn't have enough to catch them.

Finished 9th overall, 3rd in my Age Group with a 1:44:27

Official Results HERE

Muddy day, here is the bike after the race...

Right now I'm ranked 1st in the Northeast Region for XTERRA Races (M30-M34)... That will change over the next few weeks as there are a few races that I will be missing. I'm sure Dave and a few others will overtake me... But I should have enough points to remain in the top 8 now, and thus earn a slot in Nationals!!!

Oh yeah, I tried out these Aquasphere Seal XP goggles for the first time. They were perfect, no leakage at all, no fogging, very comfortable, and great open water swimming visibility. Think I'm going to stick with them for a while.

Something Different

Going to attempt the Escarpment Trail 30K with Brian in two weeks. Probably the best race description I've read in a long time...

"It is extremely rocky and a runner must expect to navigate over boulders, downed trees, gullies and hidden roots the entire distance... There are sections of the course that travel along cliffs. If you're not careful, you could fall to your death. Very few runners go the distance without taking at least one painful spill"

Yikes! More here: http://escarpmenttrail.com/

Stamford KIC IT Triathlon

Here is what I liked about this race:

• Raised over $140K for Kids in Crisis charity... very impresive.
• Fastest bike split of the day was done by a 37 year old mom... amazing.
• This cool Black and White photo (thats me #6)

Here is what I didn't like:

• The swim, and there only being a foot of water over about a third of the course. The bottom was rocky, sharp, and dangerous. Numerous foot injuries occured, many went to the hospital, some people seasons are completely over.
• The whole two different transitions thingy... just too much of a hassle.
• The heat. But thats nobody's fault... I just can't run fast in the heat.

Here is photo of the Elite Wave start. That's me on the right, and Kristin 3rd from the right kind of hunched over. We had to run all the way to the first buoy before it was deep enough to start swimming.

Same on the way back out of the water. Here is a good photo of Kristin running back to the beach.

Ended up having a decent bike split, I was holding back a little because of the heat so I could have something left for the run. It didn't work. As soon as I started running I realized that I had nothing. I gave it all I had, but was still miserably slow (7:34 pace per mile). I came off the bike in 5th place, and dropped back to 21st place overall by the time I crossed the finish line.

Results HERE

Immediately after the finish line I went to the misting station to try to start cooling down, and watched the medic tent slowly start to overflow with bloody feet and shoes. I knew my feet were in bad shape, but I didnt feel like dealing with the mob scene going on there. So I just kept my shoes on until we got home.

Once home, Kristin started performing a little "home surgery". Opening multiple cuts with tweezers, flushing them out with water, scrubbing them with a toothbrush, applying alcohol. Disgusting and very painful. Had to bite on a towel at one point. My left foot in particular was pretty shredded. Fortunately nothing was too deep. I could have probably used stiches in two spots, but the butteryfly strips and bandaging seemed to be holding... So we just went with that. Here is what my foot looked like the next day.

Going stay off my feet for a while to get this healed up. Tossing around the idea of swiming across the Great South Bay of LI this weekend. From Fire Island (Davis Park) to Sayville, about 4-5 miles. We'll see if I can figure out how to do it safely and with a support crew, and if the body is up for it closer to the date. Like 50/50 right now.

XTERRA East Championship

This was one of my "A" races of the year... I'd had my mind on this race for a long time, and was the first race of the year that I really wanted to do well at. Unfortunately the weather was too warm and humid for me to be my most competitive. Heat has never been my freind, and being a bigger guy, my body can't cool itself like the majority of skinny guys I compete against. I've learnt about my body in the heat the hard way, like DNF'ing at last years Florida 70.3, and Darkhorse 40 in 90+ degree temps... Both big learning experiences. So I threw away my original strategy, and just went for one of survival. My goal was just to finish, not have to visit the Medic tent, and be coherent enough to drive the 7 hours back home immediately after the race... solo.

Here is a map of the race course... The transition area is basically in downtown Richmond! This is one town I would not mind living in at all.

Coming out of the water at the end of the 1K swim leg... Was fun swimming in moderate current and dodging river rocks, but not the best swim time for me. I'm still not swimming that well this year. No wetsuits allowed because of the warm water temps, but I did wear booties on my feet to protect from debries on the river bottom, the 100 meter trail run at the halfway point of the swim, and the long run back up to T1. (I did a test in the pool earlier in the week, swimming in booties slow me down by about 20 seconds per 500yds... small price to pay to ensure your feet are still intact at the end of a swim like this!!!)Heading out of T1 and on to the 25K bike course... the trails are awesome, never a dull moment on the bike. I went through my 100oz camelbak, and large frame bottle, and could have still used more water... (was also taking salt/electrolyte blocks, and a gel)

Back from the bike in T2, I swapped hydration packs for the 10K run , this time using my Nathan 2 liter running specific pack, with 10oz of perpetuem, and more salt/electrolite blocks. Finished the contents with about a mile to go in the race... It was getting really hot, and there was no shade for the first half of the course... I've never drank this much in any race before, but it worked for me, and actually could have used more. I was probably abouty 10lbs lighter at the finish than at the start!!!

Mission accomplished. Finshed strong, no medic tent, and ready to tackle the drive up I95.

I ended up 7th in my Age Group with a time of 2:29:15. Earned a bunch of qualifying points towards XTERRA Nationals, and still ranked 2nd in the Northeast, after David who's in 1st, had a great race here, qualified for Worlds in Maui, but most importantly, made is debut in one of my many pointless videos (see below)...

I took this video with this camera standing in the middle of the James river. Awesome.

This race is definately going on the calendar next year. Who's coming with me?!?!

Ironclad Triathlon

K and I saw that this race was close by, and had a pretty nice cash prize for top 5 males and females... So we thought we'd give it a try. We both raced in the Pro/Elite Wave which was nice. It was a wave of 15 people that started a few minutes ahead of the Age Group waves. Which were several waves of 100 plus people in each.

I was expecting to be able to stick with the lead pack on the swim, but I saw pretty quickly that wasn't going to happen... Maybe if I had been in the water more than twice this year I would have had a chance. I lost over 2 mins to the lead pack, which is pretty significant over a 1000yd swim. I was 8th out of the water.

A steep run up to transition, then out onto the bike without any issue. The bike was two loops totaling about 12 miles... I had the 8th fastest bike split of the day, passing 2 people to put me into 5th place, and into the money. (avg. speed 22.7)

Then came the run which was very xterra style, tight twisty single track almost the whole way. I felt better and better every mile, and posted the 13th fastest run split of the race (including relays), and fastest in my age group... Very exciting for me. I got passed 100yds from the finish putting me back into 6th place and out of the money... But was so happy with my running, that I didn't really care.

Kristin suffered the same fate. The prize money brought out all the female sprint specialist, and she finished in 6th place... No doubt she would have chased most of them down in a longer event.

Team PowerShot = 1st overall relay. and first time James Racer X Brittan has had a faster swim split that me. Don't worry James, I've been in the pool twice a week since this race, and that will not happen again.