#70 - Hagg Lake 50k 2009

DATE: February 21, 2009

LOCATION: Hagg Lake Park, near Gaston, Oregon

This was a tough race for me. I once again wanted to do the Hagg Lake 50k. They give a special award to anyone who runs it five times. This was my third time. I knew a number of my friends that were running it, so it was going to be fun to see them on the course. I woke up early and drove to Hagg Lake. The weather was perfect for that time of the year, and it was going to be a run with very little mud.

I check in and got by bib and got ready for the race. I was hoping to break five hours and enjoy the race. The course is two loops around the lake with a 3 mile out-and-back at the beginning. In the out-and-back I was running pretty good.

Once I got to the loop around the course, I got going pretty good. I enjoyed the trail and felt like things were going pretty well. I don't remember my exact times, but I remember this was going well. I did however remember thinking that I would have to have a good second half to break five hours.

In the second loop, my legs started to get really tired. It started about five miles into the second loop (mile 22 overall), I felt some cramping, so I walked at times. A few more miles later, I was cramping pretty bad, and watched as many of the runners were passing me. I remember running along the street at one point and felt my legs cramping really bad, and looked down and saw my calf tightening up really bad. I remember at that point thinking it was all about finishing for me.

As I crossed the finish line, I was happy to be done. I didn't stick around too long. In the week following that race, I was really some real tightness in my legs. On Saturday February 28, I went out for a 15 mile run, but had some pain in my lower back, so I cut the run short by two miles. After that run, I had some real bad pain in my sciatic nerve. After taking a few weeks off from running, I focused mainly on cycling as I was recovering from the sciatic pain. It would be 5.5 months before I would do another marathon. But I did take a four day 386 mile cycling trip down the Oregon Coast during that layoff.

#69 - Pier Park 6 hour 2009

DATE: February 7, 2009

LOCATION: Pier Park, Portland, Oregon

A few local Portland area Ultra marathoners decided to host this race. It was a 6 hour race in a park in North Portland. The park had a nice one mile trail loop. I had never been to this park before, and enjoyed the park.

I drove out to North Portland and found the park. It was nice to see some of the local ultra runners, not that many Maniacs came. The race was organized with very short notice. Anyway, I got my bib and got ready for the race. Since it was a 6 hour, the goal was not a specific time, but was a specific distance. My goal was to run at least 34 miles. This race was a trail race, so my speed would be slowed down. The last time I ran a trail 6 hour race was at Des Moines Creek 6 hour race in March 2008. In that race I ran 34.14 miles.

As the race started I was off and running pretty fast. I was hanging around the top 3-4 runners for most of the race. There were a few of my local running friends that decided to show up and do the 6 hours, so I was able to see them as I passed them.

After about five hours I was getting a little worn out. The one mile loop had about a 50-70 foot climb in the middle which became a lot harder towards the end of the race. I had just hit the 50k mark, and felt my energy slipping. I ended up running 36.36 miles and decided I didn't have enough time for one more loop with just 9 minutes left on the clock.

That distance was good for 7th place of about 20 runners, and I was glad to have done it. Sadly, that was the only time that race was run.

#68 - Yours Truly 50k (MAX edition) 2009

DATE: January 25, 2009

LOCATION: Gresham to Hillsboro, Oregon

Once again, I was wanting to run a fun and unique race for Yours Truly. Since this was an online compiling of run times, you have the option of running wherever you want on a specific date. Now the Maniacs have a rule that these "virtual" races don't count unless you meet the minimum runner count, but at this time they had no such rule.

In Portland we have a light rail line that runs across the city of Portland. It's

called the MAX, and it runs west to east and east to west. So I looked online and figured out that it would be a little more than 31 miles to run from one end to the other on the city streets. So I parked my car in Hillsboro at the start of the MAX line and took the train to the end in Gresham.

Once I got to Gresham I got ready to run. In the days leading up to this day, it was very cold and we had some snow in some areas. I didn't realize that Gresham had a good amount of snow. The combination of cold weather and snow on the ground made it hard to get going.

Since I live on the west side of Portland, I don't run on the east side much, so it was fun to see a new part of town. Once I got about 10 miles or so into the run, the snow was gone, but the cold weather was still hanging around.

The hardest part of the run was about mile 18-20, when I had a 750 foot climb and being a higher altitude the snow was about an inch thick which made it a challenge. Once I got to the part of town I know pretty well, the weather warmed up and it felt better, but I was totally tired and wanted to be done. This made the last 5-8 miles hard, and I was happy to get back to my car. Overall the 50k took me 5:25:17, which wasn't bad.

#67 - Seattle Marathon 2008

DATE: Sunday, November 30, 2008

LOCATION: Seattle, Washington

Day three of the first Turkey Triple. It was a lot of fun to see so many Maniacs that wanted to take on the three day challenge. I ran a triple in July, but there were only a few runners that did that one and the travel was a lot greater. This time is was really fun.

I woke up early in the morning and walked down to the Seattle Center from the hostel. It was a chilly morning, but dry. I enjoyed running into so many of my Maniac friends before the race. Once the race started, I felt pretty good. I started off running at a comfortable pace.

I really enjoy this race, and this was even more special because of the triple. I remember running over the floating bridge, and the fog was pretty thick, which made Lake Washington look really cool. One thing I love about the Seattle Marathon is that there are two out-and-back stretches, which means I get to see so many of my running friends. I know some runners don't like out-and-backs, but I don't mind them.

In the first half I ran a pretty speedy 1:43:43. I knew at this point, I was going to be slowing down, but still felt pretty good. I was happy the weather turned out to be quite comfortable.

The second half of the race, was slower, but give the big hill at about mile 19, I was expecting that. My second half time was 1:51:49 giving me a final chip time of 3:35:13. I was not expecting to run it that fast. Overall the experience was a huge success!

#66 - Ghost of Seattle Marathon 2008

DATE: Saturday, Novemeber 29, 2008

LOCATION: Seattle, Washington

Day two of the Trkey Triple was the Ghost of Seattle Marathon. After spending the night at a hostel in Seattle, I got up and drove to Lake Washington to run in the Ghost. I arrived early and had a chance to talk with other runners for a while.

The race was pretty uneventful. If was just another marathon. I took it pretty easy, not wanting to push too hard. It was good to see the other triple runners.

On Friday it was a trail race, this was a road race, so I had more speed. I enjoyed the day. The weather was perfect. I ended up running a pretty normal time for me. I ran that day in 3:46.

I hung out for many hours watching the other runners finish. I had taken this triple to Seattle by myself, so I was in no hurry to leave. Afterwards I went to the Seattle Marathon expo and got my packet and headed back to the hostel to get ready for the final leg.

#65 - Wishbone Run 2008

DATE: Friday, Novemeber 28, 2008

LOCATION: Gig Harbor, Washington

Marathon Maniac #116, Lauri "The Kid" Fauerbach Adams who lives on the east coast wanted to

run a triple, so she got Bill Barmore to host a marathon on "Black Friday". I was already planning to run a double in Seattle, and was very excited to do a triple.

I drove up to Gig Harbor on Friday after sleeping in my car on Thanksgiving night. It was great to see all my Maniac friends, many of us were doing the trople.

There is not too much to day about this race. It was very cool and a little rainy, and I took it nice and easy and enjoyed the trails with Nic Plemel and other Maniacs.

It was a challenging course and it took me 4:31, but given that the course was 27.4 miles I was happy and checked into a hostel and got ready for day two.

#64 - UltraCentric 24 hours 2008

DATE: November 15, 2008

LOCATION: McKinney, Texas

My friend Tim Lawson ran this race in 2007, but had some issues and only ran 79 miles in the race. This time he wanted to do better. So after having run a 24 hour race in March, I decided to joing him. The venue had changed (it moved from Grapevine to McKinney).

Tim and I flew to Dallas on Friday and checked into a hotel near McKinney.

We spend the night and got up early to take a bus from a local school to the park where the race was held. When we got there we got our bibs and go ready for the race.

In the months prior I didn't think I needed a ton of training, I thought that I could get by with amount of maarathons I had done. I did an overnight run a few weeks prior to help with training. I now realize that doing a race like this takes a lot of special training and a lot of time. I was not adequatly preparred for this race.

One thing everyone realized very early on was the fact that the one mile loop had a 75 foot clip towards the end. This caused problems later in the night.

When the race started it was nice and cool and sunny. It was the National Champioship 24 hour race that year and it was cool to see some world class runners like Scott Jurek. I started running pretty good. My splits were pretty good. I hit the marathon mark in about four hours. I hit the 50 mile marker in about 8:40 (give or take). I hit the 100k mark in record time of 11:06, and in the first 12 hours I had run 66 miles.

From there things went down hill. Once the sun set the weather got very cold. It dropped to about 25 degrees overnight, and I was feeling sick. Tim had already dropped out. And after 16:25 and 83.45 miles I decided it was smarter to drop. I found a spot and took a few hour nap. After that Tim and I watched as the race finished.

After the awards were handed out Tim and I returned to our hotel room and got some pizza and a good nights rest, before returning back to Portland.