Free Swag

Hi!

Will here, and I'm not here defend my cereal binge. LOL That's in the past.

So yesterday I won a competition and scored $400-$500 of cool trail running gear.

This all happened on the http://www.whereskarl.com/ website. This website is set up for an elite ultra runner named Karl Meltzer (http://www.karlmeltzer.com/) from Sandy, Utah. He's one tough dude and has a few world records for ultra trail running.

Anyway, right now he is attempting to break the record for the fastest thru-hike on the Appalachian Trail which runs from Maine down to Georgia which is just shy of 2,200 miles.

So his website has a weekly competition that you can enter in daily. They tell you how far Karl is planning on running on a given day and then they give the time Karl thinks it is going to take to cover the distance. You then guess what the actual time will be and the closest people are entered into a weekly drawing.

Well unfortunately Karl got injured last week and was sidelined for a few days, so he didn't run at all. So I guessed "0:00" along with a quite a few other people and got it right. I just happened to win the weekly drawing.

So this if my free swag that I won:

A Marmot Switchback ½ Zip Long Sleeve tee.
http://www.backcountry.com/store/MAR0267/Marmot-Switchback-1-2-Zip-Shirt-Long-Sleeve-Mens.html

La Sportiva Fireblade shoes (yes! free trail running shoes. I've almost worn out my current pair)
http://www.backcountry.com/store/LSP0075/La-Sportiva-Fireblade-Trail-Running-Shoe-Mens.html

SPOT Messenger (Jenni will love this, it's a gps device that sends a signal every 10 minutes and tracks where I am on a google map, so she doesn't have to worry when I'm hiking/running somewhere without a cell signal. I can also ping 911 on it in emergency and they will know my exact location)
http://www.backcountry.com/store/SOT0001/SPOT-Satellite-Messenger.html

Nathan Pack Elite 1
http://www.backcountry.com/store/NAT0007/Nathan-Elite-1-Plus-Pack.html

Anyways, I was pretty excited: you can read about it here:
http://whereskarl.com/?q=node/175

Out!
Will

Will's 12 hour Trail Race - Redmond Watershed Preserve

Well, it's been an active week for me. I recovered from my 1st adventure race on Wednesday and rested up the rest of the week for this 12 hour race on Saturday. We had a hot spell come over us and it ended up breaking a 50 year heat record for the day as it blasted into the 90's. That may not sound too hot, but considering it had been raining and in the 50's & 60's the past few weeks it came as quite a shock to us living up here.

I really didn't know how far I was going to be able to go today. I had completed my first ultra marathon last fall. That was a 50k (31 miles). I was hoping to get further than that. 40 miles was the goal I had in the back of my mind.

The course consisted of a 5.375 mile loop (455 feet of elevation gain/loss) through the Redmond Watershed Preserve for the 1st 10 hours, then for the last 2 hours we all joined up on a small .72 mile loop (80 feet of elevation gain/loss) I ended up logging 46.25 miles and 4150 ft of elevation change.

Jenni & her parents came to cheer me on for the last 2 hours. I think I had the largest & most supportive cheering section.

Jenni made cute little signs to cheer me on.



This is my niece's school project joining me on the run.
I didn't get the full scoop on him except that we was
supposed to get his picture taken doing different things.
This is him running with me.

We started the day with about 80 people but I think only about 20+ made it through all 12 hours. With the hot temperature it seemed people started dropping off once it got uncomfortably hot. I ended up drinking over 2 gallons of water & gatorade throughout the day.

I ended up getting just 2 small blisters. One I lanced and slapped duct tape on about 8 hours into the race the other I didn't even notice until today (Sunday). I just finished drilling holes into two of my toenails to relieve some pressure so I don't think I will lose them.

All in all I had a great day and felt pretty good throughout the entire day. It got a little tough around mile 20 and again at mile 35, but with my cheering section for the last two hours I was able to stay strong for hours 10-12 and pull down another 9 miles. Jenni even pushed me a bit harder for the last 30 minutes due to a simple math error. She mentioned unless I completed 3 more laps instead of 2 I would only end up with 44.825, just shy of 45 miles, so I had to turn it into high gear and in the last 25 minutes completed 10 minute miles (2.5 miles). Which is quite the push considering I averaged 15:30 minute miles the 1st 11 1/2 hours.

I'm not sure how I stacked up against the competetion, but I'm pretty satisfied with my race. They will post results here sometime in the near future.

Here's a video if you want to see the play by play:



Update 5/23/08:
Just got my results from my 12 hour race. Overall I took 22nd out of the 73 the showed up (there were 81 registred). That put me in the top 1/3. I was not beat by anybody that did not stay for all 12 hours. 33 people stayed for all 12 hours, 40 dropped through out the day, 8 did not show up to race. Out of the 54 Men, I took 21st place putting me in the top half. I took 5th place out of 13 in the Male Open Class (under 40) & I took 2nd place out of 4 in the under 30 age group only losing out to Sam Thompson (who is profesional and sponsered by The North Face).

Will's 1st Adventure Race

Hi there, this is Will reporting with his far & few between blogs. I have my wife to thank for keeping everyone abreast on our lives. When it comes to my races, I actually attempt to put forth the effort to try and get a blog out.

I attempted my 1st Adventure Race Wednesday night. It was one of those spur of the moment races. Tuesday I found out that I didn't need to meet with my 11-year scout troop on Wednesday night, so I thought it over through out the day and Tuesday night decided to give it a try and sign-up.

I was a bit nervous going into this race as I have never done one before I really didn't know how it was going to go.

Unlike most races, you know the course and what you are going to be doing and how far you will be going, but not with Adventure Racing. They just stated to bring a mountain bike, trail running shoes, and a life jacket and mentioned that we would probably do about 7-10 miles on the bike and about 3-6 mile on foot and their might be a water section involved as well.

You'll have to watch the little video to see how it went:




Results will be posted here (beast race #2, May 14th, Renton) or here when they are available. I won't be surprised to see my name in last place, but it was a lot of fun.

Here's a little souvenir from the bottom of a creek bed.

P.S. Men's Retreat

I went with the guys from my church to Ensign Ranch a few weeks ago. We had a lot of fun. There was Mt. Biking at night, MRE's for dinner, capture the flag, shuffle board, lot's of card games, and here is a video clip of Ultimate Ping Pong:

P.P.S: 12 Hour Race Tomorrow

I have my 12 hour trail race tomorrow. Wish me luck I hope to survive and tackle about 40 miles tomorrow. If you don't hear from me, then somebody start a search party please.

Fun in the Mud

I got to run my first race of the year last Saturday. It's not quite the running season, in fact it's considered the off season with all this rain. But one race prides its self on getting lots of rain: The Bridle Trails Winter Trail Running Festival.

I ran this race two years ago and I believe it was the first race I competed in that didn't take place on pavement, so in a sense it was my first trail race and looking back I haven't competed on pavement since. I love trail running.

This race also happens to be on my home turf. Bridle Trails Park is a network of about 30 miles of trails and it's located a mile or two from my work, so I usually run there during my lunch breaks.

This running festival has a few different races: A 5.2 mile, 10.4 mile, 50k pairs, 50k teams, & 50k solo. The 50k (31.2 mile) race takes place at night time, so not only are you running through the forest in the mud, but at night time with headlamps. Of course I wanted to run the 50k solo.

My personal trainer/coach (Jenni LOL) politely reminded me that I should get a physical from my doctor before running any more super long races since it had been about 5 years since my last physical. I didn't meet those requirements in time and so I ended picking between the 5 or 10 miler. I choose the 5 miler because that was the race I ran two years ago and I wanted to see if I could beat my time.



Here's the start of the race. Can you find me? LOL The race was a lot of fun and really muddy this year. I ended up beating my old time by about 45 seconds and finished in 43:24.

Here's the aftershot, mud and all.



I'm excited to try and compete in more trail running and ultramarathons this year and improve my time and see more beautiful trails. I guess I better visit that doctor first