January started off with me being sick, yeah happy New Years! I seem to get sick the same time every year, I bounced back from sickness super quick and got down to training for the Bandit 50K and more specifically Western States 100. Ever since I had found out I got into WS 100 through the lottery I had WS fever, it was my #1 priority all year. I also had a goal of going sub 5 at Bandit 50K so I did a lot of training on the Bandit course in January and February. I felt super good going into Bandit and everything went my way, I had a great race and ended up 3rd place overall and 1st in my age group at my hometown race in 4:33:50!
After Bandit I took sometime to bump up my mileage and focused on WS training as much as I could. Two "hiccups" along the way felt very work related. Hiccup #1: When everyone at work knows your a runner they want you to represent the business name for them, my boss's rotary club puts on a 10K race through Westlake Village every year and he begged me to run it (cant say no to the boss man). Okay I don't really like short races but lets see how my speed work is coming along, I really didn't push it too hard and cruised into a 2nd place finish with a 39:15. Hiccup #2: Work decided on doing Corprate Games this year and of course I was nominated to run the 5K race, I found out that I'm really not too fast but still managed to bring home a bronze for my work in a time of 19:26.
Next up Leona Divide 50 mile, after running this race the year prior I thought this would be a great race to train on for WS. The course ended getting altered from the previous year due to fire that burnt a good part of the course last year, yeah me, I get to run a lot more elevation (around 9500ft-10000ft gain) on this new course. I was in top shape going into the race but had a foot issue where the top of my foot would start throbbing at about 10 miles in (think it was a new shoe issue). Sure enough at mile 11 at a huge downhill section of the race my foot starts throbbing with pain, after many thoughts of just ending my race I went on and pushed through the pain. The pain finally got a little more tolerable around mile 20 and I ran a solid closing half of the race. Running 7 min/miles the last two miles of the race I came in 8th overall at a pretty competitive 50 miler with a time of 7:48:12.
Road trip!! Brett (my good friend) and I decided that there would be no better way to train for WS then to train on the WS course itself. I highly recommend the WS training runs on Memorial weekend for not only WS runners but for everyone. What a great weekend of trail running, friends and beer. The first morning started with a 32 mile run through the canyon section of WS and was both humbling and gorgeous. After beers at the Auburn Ale House and a good night sleep it was on to 18 quad pounding miles through the Cal street section of the WS course. I met a lot of elite runners and got a good taste of what to expect race day, yes I'm going back this year for more.
The time has come, the big dance has arrived! this is the moment I've been training up to for months and have been dreaming about for years, the Western States 100! Desirae and I headed up to Squaw a few days early to have some time to prepare for relax before the race, Squaw and the condo we rented were amazing. Desirae ran the Montrails 6K uphill challenge that takes you up to the top of Escarpment (the first 3.5 miles of the race) I was super proud of her! WS ended up being the highlight of my running career so far, everything about it was magical. I ended up having an amazing race and a life changing experience coming in 48th overall at the most competitive and first 100 mile race ever with a time of 21:14:23. Spent the next week in San Francisco recovering from WS where I even squeezed in a run through the beautiful Marin Headlands.
After a few months recovery from WS I had an itch to test out my new found speed gained from training for WS and I usually run a marathon once a year, I really enjoy the certain type of pain associated with a marathon. I had a goal of qualifying for Boston even though I had no intention of running it this year, a 3:10 is what I needed in my age bracket. It was tough finding a marathon at this time of the year but I stumbled across the Ventura Marathon. Despite being a super boring and fairly low key marathon it was flat and fast. Even with the 2 min bathroom break at mile 10 I came in at 3:01:08 good enough for 24th overall and a BQ.
The best ultra and highlight of my year was getting married to the love of my life Desirae and merging our two families into one. This event was akin to an ultra marathon in many ways, a relationship takes hard work, patients and persistence to make it to the end, even through marriage this ultra marriage never ends, its the longest ultra run ever! But I got the best reward for this unfinished ultra with two of the greatest boys I could ever ask for: CJ and Connor. We got married 10/10/2014 at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach on a gorgeous day at the beach and I even manage to get in a run that morning to shake out the nerves. This day was by far the best highlight of my year and my life!
That's it... enough running races this year, time for some recovery and getting back to enjoying the trails at my pace... or so I thought. I was eyeing The inaugural No Name 5030 for a few months and thought it would be awesome to race on the trails I run at a lot during my lunch time. After some poking and prodding from friends and family I finally pressed the registration button. I was not feeling top form at all coming into this race so I had zero expectation of doing good, I was just going to go out there and have fun. Well hell! fun it was, winning a race for the first time ever in a time of 4:17:16!
Time for my pacing duties to come into play here as I paced Brett into a sub 24hr Javelina Jundred finish, I had a great time road tripping to Arizona and hanging out with Bretts crew/family. I got to run 30 miles through the desert starting as the sun went down and through the night, the desert at night is truly a magical place. Was proud of Brett as he hammered his way into a 22:46:43 finish!
Community support is what I'm all about, what better way to support the local trail running scene and community then running the White Bull Winter Trail Series. A series of four races about 5 miles in length each turns out to be uphill speed work. It was a great series of races with a lot of good people and local runners, I had a chance to test myself on a lot of the climbs I will be encountering on the Bandit course this year. I won the first two races (Tapo Open Spaces and Long Canyon) and came in 2nd for the final two races (Marrland and Chumash) putting me squarely in first place position overall with a cumulative time of 2:27:20.
- 02/16/2014, Bandit 50K, Time:4:33:50, 3rd overall, 1st age group
- 04/04/2014, Westlake 10K, Time: 39:15, 2nd overall, 1st age group
- 04/16/2014, Corporate Games 5K, Time:19:26, 3rd overall, 2nd age group
- 04/26/2014, Leona Divide 50 mile, Time 7:48:12, 8th overall, 1st age group
- 05/24-25/2014, Western States Training Run
- 06/28/2014, Western States 100, Time: 21:14:23, 48th overall
- 09/07/2014, Ventura Marathon, Time: 3:01:08, 24th overall, 8th age group, BQ
- 10/26/2014, No Name 50K, Time:4:17:16, 1st overall, 1st age group
- 11/08; 11/15; 11/22; 12/06, White Bull Winter Trail Series, 1st Tapo Canyon, 1st Long Canyon, 2nd Hot Dog Hill, 2nd Chumash, 1st Overall
http://2014story.strava.com/video/3834144?shared
Progress Summary Report for runinaround
Count: 445 Activities
Distance: 3,504.58 mi
Time: 524:16:29 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 304,033 ft
Avg Speed: 7.2 mph
Avg HR: --
Avg Run Cadence: --
Avg Bike Cadence: --
Calories: 234,932 C
Here's to hoping 2015 is as successful if not more successful then 2014 was for me, as we roll forward into 2015 my main focus will on Angeles Crest 100. I will start the year off running my favorite 50K the Bandit and I hope to be able to podium again this year, although I have doubts about beating last years time. I have also signed up to run PCT 50 miler as a mandatory 50 miler for AC100 and as a good training run for said race, my goal is to run under 8 hours, if that's good enough for a podium finish, awesome, if not, no worries. I will definitely be going back to Western States Training camp this year with Brett and I will be pacing him during his WS 100 effort. I would like to traverse the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica mountains through the entire 68 miles as a fun run and training opportunity. As far as the rest of my racing/running schedule goes I will wait to see what adventures might come along and just play it by ear. I will definitely be writing up more race reports and random running blog posts throughout the year. So stay tuned and join me along the adventure that will be 2015, till then a beer to celebrate and a trail to run..
- 02/15/2015 Bandit 50K
- 05/09/2015 PCT 50 Mile
- 05/23/2015 Western States Training
- 08/01/2015 Angeles Crest 100 Mile
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