WTF was I thinking

To finish off the weekend up at Squamish, I could not have predicted what I got myself into. I started Sunday morning off with a complainypants blog write up about how I did not run the race (if you can't tell I'm still bitter about it), while my parents were getting ready. We decided to have lunch together and then go our separate ways. They headed off to the Sea to Sky Gondola while I headed over to Farside aid station to hang out and hopefully get a jump on the traffic home.

How I started my afternoon

So I made it to Farside and ended up just hanging out with everyone watching the runners come through. So I didn't feel like I was completely useless I did cut up some watermelon but that was about it. The day progressed and I found out that traffic was already getting backed up so I knew it was going to be a late evening. Oh well I didn't have anywhere to be so I was okay with that.

As the last runner to clear the cut off comes through, over the radio Kyle hears about runners getting stopped by a bear that wouldn't move. That when everything became "interesting" (I'm using quotes because I don't think interesting is the right word). This is when Kyle, Courtney & I volunteered go go scare the bear away. Like the title says, WTF was I thinking, I don't chase bear, I run away from them. 

We made good time getting into the forest and I couldn't remember a lot of the trail, lucky Kyle knew where we were going. We'd made a couple short cuts and caught up to the last runner who was very scared of the bear. We'd stay with him from this point on. We'd come across a cub and talked to a few fellow hikers and bikers. From what we could gather the mother and cubs were making their way from Mount of Phlegm. We picked up the sweeps and another marshall by the time we were on our way down. So overall I can't say we actually did much bear chasing but it was still exciting. 

By the time we got to where I could hop off the course, the others took off ahead of us and Kyle and I decided to also run to the finish. Kyle, Courtney, Jennifer & the other sweep (sorry I can't remember your name) I can't thank you enough for turning my first DNS into a very fun adventure. Although I didn't get to run the race, I was able to appreciate the last 10k and it's not as hard as I remembered. I still think I should of ran on Saturday & Sunday but glad I didn't since I didn't want to end up in the hospital. 

For those who are interested, I haven't had any kidney pain since Saturday morning at 2-3ish and haven't needed to take any medication since then. Sorry to disappoint those who like to hear about my sufferfest, I promise to make sure I have a sufferfest soon enough.

I should be back to my usual adventures with good stories soon enough. Until then let's hope I pass the stone quickly and painlessly or painfully if you want me to cry. On the plus side kidney stone pain is suppose to like child birth so I'll always have that.

Emergency

I was excited about Squamish 50 weekend, I had something to prove to myself and deep down I knew it was going to be hard but doable weekend. I felt my little issues with muscle soreness and tight tendons was all resolved. I had mostly everything packed up and Friday morning I spent at the parental units place using their printer. That's when things fell apart for me.

It started at around 7:30AM, I had a very familiar pain on my left side, dull at the beginning but within 30 minutes it was getting more intense. I looked at my mom and said, "We've got to go."

We rushed out of the house and headed straight for the hospital. I got into emergency and the pain was getting excruciating. Lucky there wasn't a lot of people there and the staff got me into a room and started pumping some good drugs into me very shortly. My worst fear for the weekend was answered, kidney stones. I've had them before a little over 4 years ago and I remembered the pain.

After spending most of the day in the emergency room, I was still thinking how I will start in the morning. I decided I will to go full steam ahead with plans and see how I feel in the morning. The doctor did hook me up with some really good painkillers.

The pain did die down and I wasn't taking the full strength of the medication I was allowed to so I thought I might have a chance to start. But at 2AM, 3.5hours before the start of the 50miler, I woke up with mild pain increasing. I took some more meds and made the sad realization that Squamish 50/50 this year will not happen and this will be my first DNS. It was a tough pill to swallow and I went back to bed to have myself a little pity party.

It was a bitter sweet ending to my weekend plans, sad that I wasn't able to at least start but happy that I wouldn't be out there in the killer heat. On the bright side I was able to spend more time with the parental units. I even helped out crewing for Nancy with friends, when I say crewing I was mostly playing with Pheadra. Plus I got the best story to embarrass Pheadea with, while at chilling at Furtherside aid station, I was holding her up and all of a sudden I felt something wet dripping on my foot. It turned out that Pheadra was leaking out of her diaper and basically peeing on my foot. I yelled over to Sean and let him know what happen. I think everyone there had a good laugh.

So my weekend didn't turn out as planned but I still got to spend it with family and friends. Sorry Gary I wasn't able to start but I did gain a new fan.

Out of body Experience to a Nightmare, Finally Expectance

It all started back in December of 2015, I was sitting in front of the computer, friends signing up for various races and my body and mind separated, I reached for my credit card and I signed up for something that wasn't on the list, wasn't even a plan for this year but something came over me. My brain screaming, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!!!! This is suicidal, this is just beyond what is even considered normal by ultra standards. After I hit the accept button, I realized what I have just done and I had a sense that everything will be just fine. I know technically how to make it happen but can I put everything in motion to make this happen.

There is was I was signed up for Fat Dog 120 the weekend before Squamish 50/50. As if I thought Squamish wasn't hard enough last year I've just made it exponentially harder this year for myself. I must must love must making things hard for myself.

In the following months no matter how hard I worked, I realized the nightmare that I had created for myself. I had trouble with everything, until finally 3 weeks before the big date, I made the heart wrenching decision to drop to the 70miler. This is something I have never done. So follow me along this journey to see what happened.

I was up in the Manning Park area on Thursday just chilling out with friends, knowing now I just had to believe in myself and hopefully not get into a bad head space during the run. Some good food and friends go a long way and the night before the race I was invited to stay with Sean & company at the cabin he rented.

Race morning I was up and out the door with my somewhat lighter pack then usual and waiting for the bus ride to the start line. There was a lot of energy building up with all the runners. The ride up I chit chatted with fellow crazies and just through about the day ahead with no idea what I would discover about myself during the next 27ish hours.

At the start line checked in and chatted with friends who had support crew bring them to the start line. I was just itching to get going finally Heather said go and I placed myself at my usual spot at the back of the pack. The first couple hours nothing really exciting was happening, just taking in the views and chatting with fellow runners. As time when on I felt as two guardian angels had landed on my shoulders, I don't know if these guys were thinking of me while I was out there or my brain just needed to have friends along for the ride but it felt like 2 amazing ultra runners were with me from this point on, Sammy & Tim. As they provided words of encouragement in my head, I came across a fellow runner named Debra. We had an amazing chat about just everything for the 3 maybe 4 hours that we were together, thank you Debra for your company.

At this point it felt as my sister, H, had joint Sammy & Tim in spirit. And it felt like I had my cheering team set for the rest of the run. And as soon as I turned a corner I ran into Laddie, an ultra tough woman. We got to chat for a bit as we caught up to Bengi who had fallen and dislocated his finger, I don't do well with when it looks like a finger is about to fall off, lucky he had Meg and another runner to encourage him to the aid station. Even with what Benji when through he was making progress again and leaving me in the dust. Shortly after Laddie also pulled away, and Debra passed me as well. I was remembering my last time I was here, 2 years ago barely able to walk sweeps caught up to me and felling like my race was over. But this time I had my spirit angels to make proud so I kept trekking along even though it was hot, too hot for me anyways.

In at Cause Flats, saw Bengi who was in excellent spirits. I quickly took care of what I needed to and got out. The next section I knew was a tough section and in the heat I was reduced to a crawl. Nothing really exciting happened except I did run into Willa & Kyle. Meg and I got into Cascades almost the same time. It was a fairly lengthily pit stop but I felt re-energized. I thanked everyone one before heading back out on the the road section.

The next couple hours weren't anything too special, I was in an amazing head space, with my guardian angels. I power hiked with Julie, whom I met at Gottfried's party the week before, she remember me but I didn't remember her, sorry Julie, but it was nice to have you for company for that section. Surprisingly there weren't a lot of bugs that bit me, maybe the were full from feeding off Debra, she told me that she's delicious.

I get into Shawatum and see a couple friendly faces, Gareth, Bayly & Dustin. Bayly took really good care of me and I even had a medic have a look at one of my toes that's been hurting since before Nicomen Lake. He was pretty sure it wasn't broken but taped it up to keep the swelling down.

I headed out and shortly saw saw 2 headlamps coming back, Gareth was done, but his loss turned out to be my gain. Dustin asked if I wanted a pacer and I was like sure. It will be like old times. We power hiked and ran sections of this trail. Time flew because we got into a pretty heavy conversation about life and he provided some power insight into some of the things I've been going through the past several years. I won't get into the details, but something he said that I needed to hear felt like being punched in the gut. The pain was very short lived but the sadness of what he said was carried forward from that moment on, has been eating away at me. Thanks Dustin for your honestly, it really helped put things into perspective even though it has caused some sadness in my life. I know I can always count on your help. Our conversation also made this section go my so quickly that I was in an hour ahead of schedule. This gave me extra time to really re-fuel as much as possible since I was having trouble getting calories in with the heat.

After leaving Skyline aid station things were still going well for me, all until about an hour into the climb, maybe a little less. All the malnutrition during the day had caught up and I was feeling done for but Dustin keep my spirits up. Although the memory from this point on was a little foggy, I do remember having a nice sit down to eat and watching the stars, some whiskey at Camp Mowich and a lot of laying down on the ground feeling like I was going to die. At sky junction I fueled up the best I could for the final push to the finish line.

My climbs were very slow and things weren't going my way. I kept thinking that I wasn't going to make cutoff but Dustin kept it positive. Once we were past the last climb and knew it was all downhill, he made me chase him all the way down. He'd run ahead and I'd slowly catch up and we repeated that until the last couple kilometers.  At this time we both knew I was finishing within the cutoff and he gave me some much needed breaks. 

As we came across the other side of the lake, I started getting really emotional. I knew that I wouldn't have been here if it wasn't for Dustin. He told me to hold it together and run across the finish line. I felt like I sprinted across but it was most likely a funny looking hobble. 

Even though I should of been happy that I finished, part of me was sad. I was extremely exhausted and just wanted to lay down. It was going to be another hour or so before I could lay down and it was almost the evening before I felt like eating but I got Fat Dog 70 under my belt. 

Huge thanks for Heather & Peter for putting together this race, it learned a lot about myself during this run. Thanks to all the volunteers who help make this race possible. Thanks to Debra, Laddie & Julie for letting me tag along. Thanks to Bayly, Gareth, Katherine, Nigel, Sean, Nancy, Kyndra & Pheadra for all your support and encouragement and for letting me be Mr. Complainypants. Thanks to Sammy, Tim & H for being there in spirit, I'm still not sure if any of you where thinking of me during the race but I sure felt your presence. Probably the biggest thanks goes to my little buddy Dustin, without you I wouldn't have finished like I did. I owe this race to you.

On to Squamish, looking forward to seeing you Gary. 

BC Day Long Weekend: Setting PB & Having a Couple Lunch Dates

Since last weekend was two weeks away from Fat Dog, which will start off the next push of craziness, I decided to have short days and relaxes days. So I started the weekend with a short run around Diez Vistas and set up two lunch dates for the following days. I figured I deserved the rest. 

Saturday morning, after a great night sleep I headed over to Buntzen Lake. I was going to see if I could beat my previous person best. I set a personal best earlier this year of 2:44, shaving off 4 minutes from last years PB. Where I ended my day puking and needing a good rest before I could drive home. I wasn't very hopeful to get a PB in this time around. 

I have a preference of going counter-clockwise, longer climb and steep downhill at the end that puts me a couple kms from the car. I made really good time to the north beach and I knew this wouldn't be good since I'll probably suffer later on. I was going empty stomach and didn't even have food on me. Once I was on the Diez Vista's trail, I saw what looked like a trail runner coming down, he must of started fairly early. As he got closer, I realized it wasn't an runner it was Dustin. We chatted quickly for a bit and I continued on the climb. I chatted with others as I passed by them too so I didn't feel like I was going fast. But as soon as I got to the last Vista for me, I looked at the time and it was under 2 hours, I've never been at this point under 2 hours. On the downhill I decided to just give'r. I just bombed down and even jogged the flats at the end. When I tagged the car, I could hardly believe my time, 2:27, 15 minutes faster then my previous time. I was tired but didn't puke and didn't really need a recovery time. I don't think I can even reproduce this time, but I guess I'll find out later in the month. Rest of the day was spend relaxing at home and preparing for my lunch dates. 

Saturday morning was a late start and decided to change date plans to something a little closer to home, good bye Outram, hello Coliseum. I was still out of the house before eight and headed over to the north shore. I parked close to End of the Line and made my way into Lynn headwaters, with my breakfast warp in hand, yummy hash browns, scramble egg & fresh made salsa all warped up made for the gentle walk through Varley trail pleasant. I was on a rest day so no going hard just relaxing walk but even then, I was only passed by a few runners and I passed quite a few hikers. By the time I got to Norvan I had a some stomach issues that I quickly was able to take care of and started my climb. I don't have a lot to say about the climb so I'll let the pictures do the talking. I can tell you the climb isn't too bad and I spend most of the day with my head in the clouds.

Sunday's date was with Black Tusk, I even had a little something special for the peak. This was also a later start to the day then I wanted by almost an hour but I was still at the trail head before 7:30. It was just over a week from FatAss's night run and I remembered the climb really well. I probably passed just about every hiker without really trying and again not much to say except, I met a guy named Jim who was living the dream. He hiked in his snowboard for a run or two in the summer. Here I'll let the pictures do the talking again.

Yeah that's right I hiked up a Black Tusk Ale up the Black Tusk and even managed to keep it cold. 

I forgot how scary the scramble up to the peak is. That's where I got to meet Whitman (I hope I got your name right). After the climb down it was a quick jog to the lake for some pictures and then to the car. I ended up jogging downhill for the last kilometer and a bit with Jim. 

In all it was an extremely good relaxing weekend with one fast day hard day and two slow and relaxing days. The weekend total ended up being almost 70k with just over 4000m of gain. Time to relax and get ready for Fat Dog, Squamish, Volcanic & Frosty.

Shamelessly Bragging

In my body where the shame gland should be, there is a second awesome gland. True Story..

Over the weekend I had a very ambitious plan, last year I felt Buckin Hell was not super hard to finish so this year I made sure that I had a good chance to DNF it. My weekend started again at Friday 5AM, where I started the day with a short and shitty HIIT workout, about 30 mins but wasn't my best effort. Add in my 17k around trip bike commute for work and it was already Friday afternoon. 

This is where the insanity really starts, I went out to the Club FatAss Moonlight Mountain run at Garibaldi park. The main reason for making this was, I'm in a full on war with Mr Action Jackson for points, I am planning on taking him down this year. I was able to do 20k out and back with 1000m of gain, I had to make sure that I didn't go too fast downhill to make sure I was able to get the time over 4 hrs. I had some good company for the run, I got to meet Gary and Sarah, some new FatAsses. Unfortunately our fun run did have a sad note, Femi was injured during the run and had a long hobble down. I hope to see you feeling better soon and on the trails, but what a tough lady.

From here I went straight to the start line for Buckin Hell. I knew I was in for a tough day. Everything was going good for me the first half, a couple people recognized me from my speech. One of the lovely volunteers even asked if I threw up yet (she remembered my Frosty experience), yep on the climb up Neds. I was even able to give Sammy shit for missing the night run, he was sleeping, smart guy. I did well all the way to the 33k mark. I figured I'd be okay on the downhill but by the time I made my way around Goldie Lake, I was starting to feel the exhaustion from being up for 33 hours. At around 2:30, I was just done, completely done, physically & mentally. I didn't really recover until it was too late and and had already missed the cut off at the 37k mark. I have to say this was my best DNF ever, I learned a lot about myself and think I'll be able to handle some of my future crazy plans. 

I came home, downed about 2000-2500 calories in one sitting with about 2L of water and 600mL of beer. But before going to bed, I had to add up the distance and elevation gain, 56k with 3200m of gain, I was very impressed with that and hit the hay for some much needed rest. Sunday I went out and added another 6k with 300m of gain to round out the weekend. 

Now that the appetizers for the year are done, it's time to relax and feel confident that I did what I could before the main course for the year, I'm calling it the 755.

Huge thanks to Tim for putting together our moonlight run, Gary Robbins for putting together Buckin Hell. And the biggest thanks to all the volunteers that helped out with Buckin Hell, with special thanks for Meg, Stephanie & Gareth. It was awesome to see you in the later parts of the race. 

I know most who read this blog do things much more crazier then me so keep on doing what you are doing and don't let anyone who says your plans are stupid keep you from attempting what you want to do. Not everyone knows your ultimate goals and plans, so just keep doing what you want and have fun doing it. Besides easy is boring, make things harder and good things happen.

Cutoff by 2 Minutes & Losing my Knickers

No build up to what happened over the weekend, the title says it all, so you can stop read now.

If you are still reading, you are probably interested in the details of what happened, let's started off with what I said in last week's post. I said I'd reveal why I decided to run Knee Knacker and since things didn't go as planned this weekend, I might as well let the cat out of the bag. If you completed Knee Knacker, Broken Goat & Buckin Hell you get a shirt that said Buck Me This Goat is Knackered. Things I do just for a shirt. As you can tell my the title of this post, I missed the cutoff at Broken Goat at the 38k by 2 minutes.

The weekend started on Friday morning, I left home just before nine to make the six-ish hour journey to Red Mountain. I don't have much to say about the drive but Crazy D (thanks Chang for that name) may or may not have came out to play, only some of you have met Crazy D, if you've never meet him consider yourself lucky.

I got in early with lots of time to relax and finish converting the donkey into the toy-camper. I pick up my race kit and got ready to relax when I see I Tesla pull into the camp and I figured there is only one ultra runner I know with that car. Kyle & Brie pulled up next to me and set up their camp. After the race meeting we all called it an early night.

Saturday morning, trouble started right at the beginning where I couldn't go number two before the race, I did not like that feeling and to be honest I really didn't have my heart in the race at this moment. We were bused to the start line and we had a long time before start and I was glad I picked my heavier jacket to keep me warn until the start. I was still very lightweight, only 2 hand-helds and my waist pack. The race started and of course I placed myself at the very back, jacket came off very quickly as I started to heat up. My first hour was just getting the body and mind warmed up for the day ahead. And about hour and a half I got the call of nature and made my way off the trail, instantly I felt better and lighter.

I have to say the trails very runnable but I power hiked most of trails. I enjoyed the scenery thinking I wish I had my camera on me. I was making good estimates on times to get to the different peaks and got into the first aid-station probably about 15-20 minutes before my very rough plan. From here it was a 6k out and back before almost all downhill to the 38k mark for the 2PM cutoff. I think I did the out and back in around 1:15 and was getting ready for the downhill. I think this is where things started to go wrong for me, I probably spent a little too much time at the aid-station. It was a short climb up to the next peak before a downhill similar like Mountain Hwy and I started off strong but by the time the thunder & hail hit, I felt like a winy little baby in my head and by the time it cleared by right ankle and both knees were beginning to hurt. I don't think it was real pain but just mentally sort of giving up. Lucky for me Francine caught up to me and let me chase her all the way to the base of Red Mountain. I might have been able to push a little harder on the downhill but I liked the company and already decided whatever happens will happen now. As we both were keeping an eye on the time, we got into the aid-station asking if we'd made the cut off. Nope sorry 2 minutes over. I made the case that I'm running all 3 races with hopes to continue because I'm pretty sure I'd be able to the last 12k in less then 3 hours but was rejected. At the end I felt it was bitter-sweet ending to my Buck Me This Goat is Knackered attempt because I felt I didn't want it bad enough to make the cut off and was slightly happy to be heading home early for tomorrow's adventure.

I got back to the car, finally got to use my DIY shower to rinse myself off, had some food, left a note for Kyle & Brie and headed home. And yes it was a fun drive home. I was home by 9:30ish and had the car completely unloaded within 30 minutes, laundry loaded and ordered some Boston Pizza, wings & a flat-bread. I was in bed by mid-night with my alarm set for 5AM to run Club FatAss's Free Knicker, and I had points to earn so I couldn't miss it.

Sunday morning, I was up just after five and feeling good, packed a full pack with all bad weather Fat Dog gear with enough food for a 12-13 hour day. I have to thank Sean for allowing me to do an early start because I figured it's going to be a long day. I was on the trail about 15 minutes before 7 and got into a slow but steady hike up to Black Mountain.

My plan was simple, I was planning on staying ahead of everyone as long as possible and cutting sections of the trail out, like the dreaded section between Grouse & Skyline, as well as some of the Baden Powell around Quarry Rock, using Cove Runner to miss most of the tourists. As I was getting closer to the boulder field just below Eagle Bluffs, I came across the Donut Rock trail that I have always wanted to take. I think on the map it showed I'd cut a couple kms from the route so I figured I'd get a huge lead on the rest of the gang. Well it might have been less distance but time wise it took me much longer then if I stayed on the Baden Powell.

It started off okay but quickly because a vertical climb, with some route finding. I made one wrong turn that cost me about 15-20 minutes, a hard river crossing (I was trying to keep my shoes dry, and was successful) all before it became a very narrow and steep trail. At a couple points I had to throw my poles over to the top, hope they didn't fall back down and go into four wheel drive mode. I also bashed my shins a few times and hit my head on some logs. By the time I connected again with Baden Powell I figured I wouldn't be finished until well after 9 and was ready to throw in the towel and head back, but I at least wanted finally bag Black for the Bagger Challenge, which I am not doing well in. I got to Black and let Nancy (who was nice enough to set up an aid-station at Cleveland Dam) know my plan, I had a rest and was getting ready to head back down when I hear familiar voices. Kyndra, Meg, Eric and Sean were all just getting to Black, and I got to enjoy the fruits of the first cache with them and decided to follow them down to Cleveland Dam before calling it quits. After we were on Hollyburn, wherever they took a break I keep moving in hopes not to slow them down too much and I got into Cleveland Dam 7 hours after I started.

 

Even though the weekend didn't turn out as planned I couldn't have been happier with the day and decision to take Donut Rock since it was a new trail and an adventure. I am slightly disappointed with my performance at Broken Goat, if only I ran a bit more of the course. But at the end of the weekend I had fun and it's that's what it's all about. I still managed over half my attempted distance and elevation gain, 61k with a little over 3000m of gain, target was 90-95k with 4800m. And hopefully I got this year's DNF in the bag so the next few races go well.

On a side note, for those who have been wondering about my Fat Dog attempt, I made the heart breaking decision on Monday to drop down to the 70miler, knowing that I don't have the climbing ability I had last time I attempted it I thought this was the wise decision.