Pacing Big Horn 100: No toenails were harmed during this Ultra

On Friday through Saturday June 20, 21 I was honored to be part of a team for Ronda Sundermeier who won the overall women's title for the Big Horn 100 mile race.

The race is a nasty little sucker that has 17500 feet of climbing and 18000 feet of descent. We were on a slightly different layout this year due to the remaining snow that was still plenty deep in the higher parts of the traditional course.

The 2008 men's race winner Jeff Browning, who also has won two previous Big Horns stated the course was different in a way that made the times faster but made the course no less difficult. This years course had just as much climbing but the climbs were more compressed so you could get them over and done with and get back to the faster business of the downhills.

Ronda started the race very strong and was quickly way ahead of her pace chart. She likes to keep her crew on their toes!
The race started at 11:00 am but on the first day the weather was quite nice with some clouds but no rain or thunderstorms. The picture at the beginning of the post is right at the start as the runners head into the Tongue River canyon.

We had great fun crewing Ronda for the first 50 miles with lots and lots of driving covering 2 states (Wyoming and Montana) and several pretty impressive creek crossings. We even had a bit of spare time to capture some pictures of some local moose.

My first running of the day as a pacer was for a 1.4 mile out and back from Footbridge to Pacer Junction which was a new addition this year to add some miles for the snow course. Done just as it was getting dark following along the Little Big Horn river and it allowed us to see the field and know we had our work cut out for us through the night.

Ronda then did a 7.5 mile out and back with her husband Bill up to Leaky Mountain and back. Hard section of course which few people came out of looking happy. Most had a dazed look along the lines of "What was that??!!".

Then it was my turn to take over pacing duties for the next 36 miles to the finish, broken up in 8 sections.
At this point Ronda had already run 63.9 miles and it was 2:00 am Saturday morning.

Footbridge to Bear Camp. 3.5 miles in 1:35
We headed out from Footbridge where I had been hanging with Kris and many other runner's crews since around 9:30 pm keeping warm by the campfire.
This section is a nasty climb when you are tired and running in the dark.

Bear Camp to Cow Camp. 7 miles in 2:12
Nice temperatures and running in the moonlight with reflection off mountains as you traverse mountain meadows filled with flowers starting to bloom and deer crossing the trail. You just have to see it to believe it!

Cow Camp to Riley Ridge. 3 miles in 1:07
Another nasty climb that was added this year to make up for the change to not go all the way up to the Porcupine ranger station. Ronda beat her splits in this section. They really need to teach the cows/deer to add switchbacks into their trails on these mountains!

Riley Ridge down to Dry Fork. 5.3 miles in 1:20
The first part of this section is up on the ridge around 8500 feet with some mud and snow sections. In the early morning things were still slightly frozen and less wet than when the runners went through the previous times. As Ronda ran the drop down to Dry Fork the 50 km runners we heading out up the hill towards us. It was really cool the support these runners gave Ronda as she powered down the hill into the aid station.

Dry Fork to Upper sheep. 5.0 miles in 1:12
Headed out of the aid station and up again following a road and then on to single track trail through mountain meadows. Our crew was playing mind games by telling us the next woman back was 12 minutes when I think she was more like about 1 hour.
Smart move as it kept Ronda running strong through the fatigue and me trying to think of ways to keep her moving to lock down first place :-)

At the the Upper Sheep station I was surprised to see chilled shrimp and a bunch Canadian flag chairs...nice!

Ronda also made the smart move to start soaking her legs and feet in the creeks that we went by. 30 to 60 seconds in the cold runoff water did amazing rejuvenation.

Upper Sheep to Lower sheep. 4.9 miles in 1:11
Down and down and then more downhill running. Ronda was bookin it through this section and got my workout keeping up. You know it is a long downhill when you are starting to look forward to flat or even some uphill.

Lower Sheep to Tongue River. 2.3 miles in 32 minutes
Don't have strong memories here except I believe it was getting hot and you could start to smell the finish. More leg soaking just out of the aid station.

Tongue River to Homestretch and then to Finish. 5.2 miles in 1:05
Evil last section along a basically flat country dirt road leading into Dayton Wyoming and the finish in a local park.
It was stinkin' hot by this time and everyone is really ready to be done. No objections here if the race was only 95 miles! I started to get pretty cooked along this section and I had hardly run at all compared to the racers. We all enjoyed the freezies at the Homestretch aid station!

Ronda finished strong in 25:10 to take first place and the second fastest women's time ever at Big Horn. The awards were the next day in downtown Sheridan, WY. Jeff and Ronda look like they could go out for another 50 at least ;-)

Lots of other Pacific Northwest runners had a great showing. Several of the runners came back from the dead to run strong second halfs. Overall male and female and many age group placings came back to the PNW. Stenciled rocks are given 3 deep as age group awards for the Big Horn races. Airport security really loved these :-)
See the full results here.
All of the racers from the first to the last were inspiring and I am fired up to keep training hard and get ready for more racing.

It was a great weekend of crewing, running and pacing. The course was well marked and the aid stations and volunteers were great. My only regret was not carrying a camera out on the course....live and learn. Olga did carry a camera and her shots are here.

We did have adventures off the trail as well: canceled flights, bad service in restaurants, hotels and at the airport. Then having our shuttle van hit by flying corrugated metal pipe flying off a dump truck...OUCH!

For me I got lots of time on my feet running some great trails up in the mountains and getting to witness a great race. About 11 hours of running and about 6000 ft of climbing: awesome prep for the PCT 50 miler.
This was also my first long running using trail shoes. I have always run in Asics 2100 series road shoes for all my pacing and racing. On recommendations from the ultra list and Jeff I tried the 2120 trail version. I like em!! Extra lug for the mud and did well in the wet conditions but still light and felt very similar to the road version.

And yes, no one lost any toenails :-)

Pre Big Horn 100

We are all sitting in Sheridan, Wyoming watching the amazing thunderstorm show roll through the valley. With the torrents of rain (with some hail) everyone is glad the 2008 Big Horn 100 does not start until 11:00 am tomorrow!

Guarantees there will be at least some mud to slog through ... wahoo!
It will also be interesting to see what the course changes really mean when we get out on the trail but since we have not done this race before doesn't really matter. The course was changed as the top part of the course on the out and back is still under 3 ft of snow. Less out and back but it looks like more climbing. Cool, we know how to do that ;-)

Casual day of travel from Portland to Billings, Montana via Seattle.
The drive from Billings was nice as the hills are all really green and the mountains all capped with snow. Saw several pronghorns "out on the range".

Once we checked in to the Days Inn, we headed to the race check-in for all the Oregonians to get their numbers and race packet, weigh in, get their blood pressure checked and have the pacers (like me :-) ) sign in and get our pacer bibs.

Scott Jurek gave a little talk on race day nutrition but likely he was preaching to the choir :-)
Then time for a dinner and a Walmart run to pick the essentials such as water and red bull and some food for the crew out driving the back roads all day.

Now it is time to finish packing my food for the day and prepare to help push Ronda from Footbridge to the Finish (about 33 miles) and to do my part to ensure that she has an awesome day tomorrow!

Pacing at Angeles Crest 100 mile race

This past weekend I had the privilege of crewing and pacing Stacey at the Angeles Crest 100 mile race. The short of it is that Stacey finished in 24:57 and was the 20th finisher and the 3rd women bringing home the Cougar award.
Full results here.

There were four of us on Stacey's crew: Ronda, Trisha, Jeff and myself. It was great fun having Trisha (my wife) on the crew to experience first hand the running of a 100 miler. We both agree that I am not yet ready to tackle one of these beasts :-) We were able to check out the first couple of miles of the course on Friday as a group. The race starts on the streets of Wrightwood, CA and heads up into the hills towards Pasadena.

The course is single track trail with one little section of about 2 miles of road going around a protected area for a mountain frog. I would be thanking the frogs if I was running this course!
The high desert course for Angeles Crest is tough: running up to 9000 ft and with 2 large climbs in the last 25 miles of the race.
The climb out of Chantry Flats seems to go on forever: 3100 ft in 6.24 miles. As well, you have 9.2 miles until the next aid station: you reach the peak of Mt Wilson and you have only 4.2 miles to go. The last climb is a little more forgiving with 2000 ft in 3.77 miles. The downhills after these climbs are nice if your legs are fresh but rather technical and hard on the quads after 80 miles of running :-).

Crewing is relatively easy on this course as the trail criss-crosses the Angeles Crest highway so you basically jump out of the car, set up and wait for your runner. Nothing like the hiking into Greengate that we all know and love at Western States 100.

I paced Stacey on two sections of the course: from Chilao to Shortcut (6.5 miles) and then from Chantry Flats to the finish line at Johnson's Field (26 miles). Ronda did the 15 miles between Shortcut and Chantry....this after just finishing the Grand Slam last week at Wasatch 100. These runners are TOUGH!

The course is also extremely beautiful at night with many glimpses of the entire Los Angeles basin from Mt Wilson and Sam Merrill. At least the pacers get to enjoy it. I think the runners are pretty focused on just keeping the legs moving by that point in time! I should have carried my camera but likely my pictures would not do it justice. There is a cool section where you run along the old Mount Lowe railway line traversing the hillside. We saw several deer hunkered down sleeping on the hillside in these sections and the ruins of the old bridges of the railway look intriguing in the dark.

Pacing is a great job and way to experience and learn race courses without the complete pain of running the 100 miles. I highly recommend it but also make sure you are ready and willing to take the time and energy to really help your runner reach the finish line.
Here are some great starting hints from the Wasatch Speed Goats: how to pace.
We really worked as a crew to keep Stacey's aid station time as close to zero as possible.
You should also treat pacing pretty much like your own race. Have your own fueling plan and ensure that you are ready to run the miles. A bad pacer makes for a harder race for the runner...and running 100 miles is hard enough.

Now I go back to training...at least after my legs heal from pacing :-)

Working Hard and Having Fun

This morning at 3:14 AM my friend Ronda S finished the Western States 100 mile race. She had started at 5am the previous morning. With finishing under 24 hours, she is the proud owner of a Western States silver buckle! Awesome and inspirational!

Yesterday was full of fun and hard work.

My intention had been to take hundreds of pictures of the race at the aid stations. I ended up taking less than 20. The excitement of the race and the duties of a crew member make the 24-27 hours go by soooo fast. First you running around driving, hiking and running to get to one of the crew aid stations. Then you are attempting to find out how your runner and other friends are doing. Then you are checking out each and every runner passing through the aid station. Do they look strong or do they look like they are done for the day? Amazing how almost every runner transitions in and out of so many different states. Most everyone has to come back from the dead at some point!

This was particularly true for the runners that I tracked the closest yesterday: Ronda had stomach issues and achieved her first race "hurl". Michael had eye and feet issues. Jim's feet came into play. Bushwhacker looked done at Rucky Chucky. All persevered on the strength of their training to come in sub-24. Awesome!

Stacey paced Ronda from Forest Hill to Green Gate and did a great job of helping Ronda deal with digestion issues.
I had the honor of running with her from Green Gate to the Placer High School track finish. This section is about 22 miles. We got lost, we had some laughs, we passed LOTS of people and Ronda even attempted to puke one last time. I also had the misfortune to slam my foot down in to a hole on the trail. I believe it happened about 1 mile after leaving the first aid station of my pacing duties, Auburn Lake Trails. So 6.4 miles into my part of helping out I am broken. After a bit of screaming with pain and frustration, my ankle has swollen up enough that I can continue on and do my job of helping Ronda. With a little help from my pain killing friends Aspirin, Advil and Tylenol I was able to shuffle along and hopefully do my part to help keep Ronda moving just that little bit faster. My goal was to always urge her on to drop me on the downhill sections. She did great and I think we must have passed about 20 people over the nearly 5 hours we were running together.

I am still not sure if I want to sign up for this bad boy. 100 miles is never easy and I have new respect for the course. Running 16 of 22 miles on a sprained ankle (wahoooo nothing broken!) still does not even come close to approximating the strain and anguish of running the full 100 miles. I guess the real question is why all the finishers have such a huge smile on their faces even with all the pain. I think I might want to find out :-)

WS 2007: They are off!

Beautiful morning, some might even say that it is cold :-)
The group is off to Auburn!
Good luck to Ronda S, Jim R, Michael M, Mike B, Anna B and all the other amazing runners out there!

WS 2007: Checking the Trail

I am hanging in Squaw Valley waiting for the big WS 100 day tomorrow.
After the long day of travel from Boston yesterday and arriving after midnight I was very happy when I found out we were not heading out to check out the trail until after 8am!


With Bill S, Cian M, Stacey B we headed out on the Granite Chief trail. The weather was awesome...warm but not hot. This year there is NO snow left. Night and day from last year.
The Granite Chief trail is a steady 4 mile climb with some amazing views and open granite running. Cian and I attempted to make things fun but Bill and Stacey just kept claiming we were lost :-)
We then connected with the Pacific Crest Trail to jaunt over to the Western States trail. A little hill up and we crested out at Emigrants Pass at 8800 feet. We then ran backwards the first 3.5 miles of the race: map. The huge difference on this part of the course is again NO snow! Running it backwards is the way to go!

After cleaning up and doing some shopping at the Western States store it was time for the Runners preparation meeting.


Lets just say that there are lots of stinkin' fast runners ready to attack the course tomorrow. They lined up the top ten men and women contenders and I think that there were about 5-10 more men and women out in the crowd who are potential contenders. Everyone looks just as ready as all the drop bags laid out on the road near the starting line. Tomorrow is going to be a great day to watch and play a small part in!