Seen while....

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again – William Edward Hickson

And that is pretty much what led to the decisions behind this year’s races.  Some of the races I am am returning too are simply because I had such a great time there last year and that includes Badwater Cape Fear, Badwater 135 crewing for Sandra and Run for the Toad which is a great, local, 50KM trail race.

There are a…

Success - Not always what you think it is....

Looking back at 2015 and success might not be the first word that comes to mind.  It started well with the completion of my first 50 mile ultramarathon at Badwater Cape Fear but two DNFs at longer distances left me batting .500 for ultra finishes this year.

– Badwater Cape Fear – 50 mile in 12:14

– Badwater Salton Sea – 81 mile dropped at 45 miles

– Run for the Toad – 50K trail in 6:03

– Daytona…

Sleep Walker - Daytona 100 race report -

The last thing I remember before waking up on the ground was leaving AS8, roughly 81 miles into the race, and being walked across the street and given directions to AS9 from a volunteer.  Next thing I am on ground.

No worries, shake it off,  keep moving forward.

A mile or so later I stumbled on a curb and it was game over.

I shuffled along, doing my best Terry Fox impression for a few more miles…

Stories - 1000KM in a pair of Altra Paradigms

The other day while on a recovery run, right now anything 2 hours or less is considered recovery, my feet were aching.  I knew the Altra Paradigm I was running in were old but I wasn’t sure how old.  When I got home I checked the equipment tracker in TrainingPeaks and found that I just passed the 1000KM mark in them.  They felt off, my feet ached and upon further inspection the sole was worn and…

A Mudder - A review of the Altra Lone Peak 2.5

When I started running trails I was happy to see that Altra was making trail shoes.  I was introduced to the brand through triathlon and road running but they make great trail shoes too.  In fact I think they are more popular (based on what I see people wearing while running) in the trail world than anywhere else.

Those first shoes were the Lone Peak 1.5 and you can see a picture of them in the…

CXXXV MMXV - An experience, the only way to describe Badwater 135 -

The other day I got back from crewing for my friend Kelly at the 2015 Badwater 135 and everything they say, everything you heard is true.

Is it really that hot?  Well this was the temperature in Furnace Creek about an hour before the start.  At the start it was actually 121F.  That’s 49.5C for anyone outside of the US and on day 2 it hit 126F (52C) across Panamint Valley!

Perfect long sleeve…

The One - A review of the latest version of Altra's racing flat -

When I started running with Altra shoes it was the 3-Sum that originally caught my eye as it was a “triathlon” shoe.  Soon after that I discovered the regular version called The One.  Neutral, flat, light, zero drop and a wide toe box made it what I thought at the time was the perfect shoe.  Then came v2 in The One 2.0 and I really found the perfect shoe for hard, fast running.

Note: I am an…

Color Blind -

The other day I ran my first 5 Peaks trail race.  A short 5.2KM jaunt through Rattlesnake Point, which is, what I would refer to as my home course.  I run there all the time, I know the trails, it’s a great place to run.  I got there a couple of hours before to set up the Altra/CEPtent and get in a warm up lap of the course.  You’d think that because I ran the course an hour before the race and…

Support Race2Rebuild and win cool stuff :) http://wp.me/p5mewa-1e1

A few years ago I met Dan through TrainingPeaks as he was the first manager of the ambassador team and later we met at the Boulder 70.3 when I volunteered during a weekend layover.  We’ve been friends since albeit mostly through Facebook but I admire Dan for the simple reason that he races for more than himself.

Over the years I’ve seen him involved with TriCozumel and introducing the area and…

A while back there was a thread on Slowtwitch asking for input on nutrition outside of training.  As with most Internet forum threads it got out of control pretty quickly.  I ended up sending a direct message to the original poster with my feedback.  The poster was Enduropacks and like a good company should they were looking for feedback from people on what they eat and drink in between training…

Shit Happened - Some sort of race report...

We came, we saw, we learned, we will return.  That is all you are going to get as far as a race report for Badwater Salton Sea.  That and some more stunning photos from our race.

Desert Running - Race report in photos... #badwaterss

Hot, sunny and dry but it’s a desert so it was expected!  While you all anxiously await the race report here are some photos…

Mandatory product placement shot! Thanks Altra and CEP Canada!

Blue skies for miles and miles!

What’s that smell?

That’s not sand! Millions of dead fish skeletons make up the “beach”!

Aid station fare :)

A bit dry and salty but not bad!

Open water swim?

The Salton Sea

We…

Holy S#!T - Crazy few weeks leading up to Badwater Salton Sea!

I’ll admit I’ve been pretty lucky over the years.  Things have gone very smoothly as I progressed through triathlon.  No injuries, no illness that caused me to miss a race and I’ve managed to work my work schedule around racing and training quite well.  Then I came home from Badwater Cape Fear….

– A minor inflammation of/around my Achilles Tendon which took a few sessions of acupuncture and…

Badwater Cape Fear - The longer version of the race report... #badwatercf

A most excellent experience!  That is the best way to describe Badwater Cape Fear.  From the drive down, to the pre-race relaxation and festivities to the race to the post race activities, it was truly an outstanding experience.  It was a small event, on purpose, with race entries capped at 150 runners.  In total there were 130 people running either the 50K or the 50M (more accurately 51.4 but…

March Break - A race report in photos... #badwatercf

After a long, cold Winter I spent some time on the beach yesterday!  While I’ll have a full report of the experience of Badwater Cape Fear here is the summary in photos…

Start line

11 miles of road to start the day

1.4 miles of trail

And then on to the beach for 39 miles

A shot of the beach

Sunny beach

1/2 way point

More beach and some birds

More beach

Some more beach

The beach at low tide

Even…

One Week - "Race Week" is here! -

Well it is here, race week.  It feels weird calling it a race.  There is a clock but it feels more like when I was gearing up for Ironman Lake Placid.  I just want to finish, the clock is a cut off, the actual time is irrelevant as long as it is less than 14 hours!

It’s been a long Winter, one of the coldest in a long time, which led to A LOT of treadmill time.  That said it was a good training…

Winter Sucks -

Less than 4 weeks until Badwater Cape Fear.  I am sooooooo looking forward to running outdoors, in shorts!  This Winter has sucked.  It’s not necessarily been too cold to run, it’s been too cold to run long.  A hour, bundled up, in -15C is a far different experience than 3-4 hours.  While it’s not going to be hot in North Carolina in a few weeks 15C is tropical compared to the -15C averages we’ve…