Ultraspire R&D in the Philippines

Par for the course I am slow in writing about the amazing things that continue to happen to me.  After spending a few days in Southern California after the San Diego 100, which included Sea World, surfing with the crew from Patagonia in Ventura, and visiting the Patagonia HQ, we hit the road home. Almost as immediately upon arriving home I was packing again, this time I was headed to the Philippines to work on R&D for Ultraspire for a week.

Chloe and Brynlee checking out the turtles at Sea World

Brynlee and I getting surf lessons from Patagonia rockstar Allison 

Brynlee getting the hang of it

The travel to the Philippines is exhausting, and I managed to have an epic travel day with mechanical delays, runways closures and airport bivys.  I arrived at 6:30 am, 8 hours later than planned, so instead of going to bed and sleeping of the jet lag time warp I went to the hotel gym and hammered on the treadmill for 45 minutes.  I then got to meet up with the Thatcher's at the buffet breakfast before we hit the road for a 3 hour drive from Manila to Marivelas.

Sushi, fried shrimp, potatoes and a waffle.  What else do you eat after 45 hours of travel?

I fought fatigue on the drive as I tried to stay awake and absorb as much as possible of this new country.  Late in the drive the fatigue won out and I dosed off.  What seemed like moments later we were arriving at the Dongin Entech Factory building that does the majority of Ultraspire (among others) production.  We spent the next 4 hours getting things organized and setting priority lists of projects.  At 8 pm we stumbled back to the car and then to the house we were staying in.  We ate and then I collapsed in bed, exhausted but excited for the early morning run planned for the next morning.

Micah Thatcher loads up on supplies- Fish Crackers?

Fridge on a motorcyle

4:45 am the alarm on my iPhone brutally drags me from sleep, but an instant later I am dressed and headed upstairs.  The whole crew Bryce, Melanie and three of the Thatcher boys; Micah, Josh, and Matthew and myself all head out for a morning trail run.  Stepping outside was a shock, I am conditioned to expect cool temps when I leave my house this early, well not in the Philippines.  I was greeted by a blast of hot humid air, and with a smile I headed out to into the morning.

Micah and I near the top of Mount Terak

Bryce and Matthew on the way up Terak

The next several days went by in a blur, early morning runs, a quick breakfast, off to the factory.  Lunch around 1:00 (an amazing homemade lunch prepared by Manon), back to the factory until around 8, stumble home, eat, to bed, repeat.

Lady Manon-this lady can cook!

Just one of our many delicious meals

 It was so incredible to be involved with developing many products and concepts at this level.  It grounded my thoughts on how quality products are made and how talented the Philippino workers are to be able to sew such complicated pieces of equipment with such outstanding accuracy.  Before I knew it we were having a farewell Ice Cream party with the sample room crew and loading into the car for the drive back to Manila.

The Sample room after everyone has gone home

Some of the crew working hard

Pattern cutters, and sewers showing off Ultraspire Bottles

In Manila we had a wonderful dinner with Peter at a fancy Asian Fusion Restaurant before heading to the hotel to sleep a couple of hours.

Mango Shake- so good

Maybe we shouldn't have watched Lord of the Rings when we should have been sleeping before our 4:30 am flight!

 4:30 am found us in the hotel lobby getting ready to make the travel slog home.  It was fun traveling back with the Thatcher's instead of being solo.  We were able to take advantage of the Sky Lounges which made travel a little more comfortable, even for a dedicated dirtbag like myself.  Interestingly we experienced delays on the way back home that resulted in missed connections and more delays, but delays aside I wouldn't hesitate to hop on the flights to make the same journey again.  I am very thankful to the crew at Ultraspire for allowing me to be so intimately involved with developing products and thanks the the Thatchers for an awesome trip.

Menan Butte Challenge, Finally Back At It

Me running near Macchu Picchu near the end of a Humanitarian trip to Peru- Photo Zach Allen

Well it is about time I write something here, the electronic cobwebs were getting pretty thick, not to mention the digital dust bunnies! Yesterday marked my first trail race of the year, the Run Around The Rim which used to be called the Menan Butte Challenge. It has been a couple of months since I wrote anything here, but I have been posting some over on The White Room. Honestly the ski mountaineering race season took a pretty heavy toll on me this year and it has taken a while to come back. Actually I am not sure if I have fully recovered even now.

I have been spending a fair bit of time running trying to switch from skimo fitness to trail racing fitness, which has proved to be fairly difficult. All of the high intensity training on skis left my tendons pretty soft since there wasn't any "pounding". As I have spent more time on the trails it shows that although my cardio motor is ready to rock, the legs are not quite ready. I have had to deal with several minor issues that border-lined on injury.

Picture form the start of last year's race the first climb is a doozy! Photo Tanae Nelson

I was very tentative going into the Menan Race this year. The course favors my strengths as a trail runner and I have always had pretty good results. I showed up for the race a little early and was delighted to see many familiar faces. I even had the chance to warm-up with Chris Lundberg from Jackson, who is always a strong competitor. He mentioned that he was also a bit nervous about how the race would go as he had just gotten back from running Boston a few days prior! In the last minute briefing before the start the race director added a bit more pressure by introducing me and talking about some of the running I had been doing over the last couple of years.

Chris was rocking a beard again this year, but last year's was more intimidating- Photo Tanae Nelson

I was surprised to have a very lean college aged runner holding on during the entire first ascent. Normally I can get away from the crowd on the way up the Butte, but this guy was stride for stride until nearly the top. Just after the crest I couldn't hear him anymore and so I put the hammer down trying to gain some ground. It worked since I ran pretty much the rest of the race all alone. On a small out and back I saw Chris and Eric (the lean guy) duking it out on the descent to the turn around, but at that point I had a pretty solid lead. I still pushed hard trying to reel in any runners ahead of me on the shorter course, I did pass a couple on the last descent to the finish line. I crossed the finish line in 42:09 for what was thought to be a 12k, although it felt a bit shorter.

I am very content with how things went in the race, it felt really good to push my body to a hard effort. I hung around for the awards and things then as runners packed up and headed out, I grabbed my Ultraspire Surge and headed back up the Butte to get the long run miles in for the week. Since I had raced hard for 6 of the miles I felt pretty content with an additional 14 on the butte, especially since I totaled out just shy of 6000' of ascent for the day (1500' in the race and 4482 after). Final Results Here

Gear for the race:

La Sportiva Crosslite 2.0

Green Layer La Sportiva Race long sleeve

Patagonia Long Haulers

First Endurance EFS (with half a scoop of First Endurance Prerace).

After the race I dropped to a green layer t-shirt and grabbed the UltraSpire Surge, I fueled with 1 EFS liquid shot and plain water.

Hopefully this race was enough of a confidence booster that I can break out of the slump that I have been in for the last month or so, that coupled with some big plans for this summer should give me the motivation to train hard and keep this blog updated with some quality content. If there is anything trail or skimo related that you would like to hear about leave a comment below. I am thinking of doing some gear/nutrition reviews as well as some training info in the near future.

Bonus pic- Running along Lake Barcis in Italy as a way to "shake out" between the World Cup Races-Self Portrait

Seattle

In typical fashion I have fallen behind in keeping this blog updated. I have had the goal for several weeks to put an awesome post together highlighting what I have been up to, but I simply have not had enough time. I am very slowing getting a bunch of video put together that documents the running that I have been doing while I have been in Seattle for the last couple of weeks. I am here doing my final clinical rotation for PA school. It has been intense, I work in the Harborview Emergency Department, we take care of people that are hurt really bad, and are brought from all over the NorthWest. TV ER dramas have nothing on what a real trauma center sees. I work twelve hour shifts, 5-6 a week. There hasn't been much time for anything but work, running, eating, studying (some), and a little sleep. I have still managed to keep my weekly mileage between 80-105 miles, all with lots of vertical. Although I have to drive to get to any trails, it is very worth it, the mountains and trails here are so very beautiful, though I do have to admit that I am starting to miss sagebrush and juniper a little. In a lot of ways it has been pretty lonely up here, my wife and daughter weren't able to come along, and the few friends that I do know here in the big city have been doing lots of traveling for racing and other obligations. Seems strange to be lonely when I am surrounded by millions of people, but the closeness of familiarity is absent. I hope to get out on a few runs with the amazing Krissy Moehl over the next week and half, since she is coming to back in town after a whirlwind of ultra-running adventures, that will be awesome. Hang in there for pictures and video of breathtaking trails, only a week and a half more here then I head home, where I think I will have a bit more time to get those up. Happy running!

2010 Pocatello 50

My legs after 34 Miles of awesomeness at the finish area of the 2010 Pocatello 50. Photo by Tanae Nelson

Well it would be a gross understatement to stay that this year's Pocatello 50 was a difficult run. As many have already reported the race was called off early because of arctic weather conditions including rain, snow, sleet, gusting winds (some estimated 40-50 mph), and very poor visibility on the high mountain ridges (of which this race has many). The start of the race was some of the most pleasant weather of the run, about 35 degrees with a very light drizzle. After the short section of pavement from the start to the Slate mountain trail the lead pack formed, Brad Mitchell and another relay runner were putting down a blistering pace and before the top of the first climb (about 3 miles into the race) they were out of sight not to be seen again. Joe Grant and Scott Jaime were right on my heels and commented that I would be their tour guide for the day to keep them on track. At this point in the race it started to rain a little harder and the trails quickly got greasier and greasier, by the time we descended dry creek towards the Gibson Jack Aid Station it was downright difficult to stay on your feet, the once pristine ribbon of smooth single track became a virtually frictionless slice of slimy mud.

The three of us went through the Gibson Jack Aid station with Joe in the lead, then me followed by Scott. We were all right together when we started to ascend the Wild Mountain climb and the wind started to blow, the rain also turned into a very solid gropple (think micro-hail). I pulled ahead of Joe as did Scott as we switched from run to power hike up the steep off-trail section. With every step the conditions deteriorated, the wind blew stronger and the visibility lessened, by the time we summited it was difficult for me to get on route and I probably know this section of trail better than the back of my hand. It was so cold rime ice was forming on all of the sage brush and on our bare legs, my hands went numb and it quickly became impossible to open a gel or drink out of my now frozen hand bottle. Joe pulled ahead a little on the descent down Cusick creek, but I pulled in to the City Creek Aid station within a minute or so with Scott right on my heels. It was much warmer at the low elevation aid station but still raining and as I passed race director Jared Campbell on my way out of the aid station he asked how it was and all I could think to say is that is was "for real up high". I then charged out of the aid area looking to catch Joe before he put too much ground on me. Before the top of the City Creek trail I had caught and passed Joe, as did Scott who stayed glued to me on the ascent up the downhill course. As we topped out we were once again in the epic wintery conditions, but I knew this time would be worse; we stayed above treeline for longer and we were running straight into the wind, it was very hard to keep positive about how it felt. Scott passed me on the descent into Midnight Creek and commented "it is a different world up here". I ran consistent down Midnight, but started to bonk a little because I was unable to open the gels that I had in my pockets, in desperation I started to squeeze them until they were pressurized and then bite into the package. This would cause them to burst open and I think I probably was able to get a little more than half of the gel in my mouth. At the remote Midnight Creek Aid Station I sipped a little warm Ramen broth and set to work to try to reel in Scott.

Just out of the aid station I had to stop to relieve myself and when I started to run again the bonk came on in full force, since we had been out of the wind for a while now my hands functioned enough to open two gels which shortly after consuming I came around very quickly. In the midst of the bonk though, Joe passed me. Now I had two guys that I needed to catch. Once I topped out of the Monument climb my legs started to feel much better and I began to move really well. I worked very hard to gain back the lost ground, I could tell that I was getting some of it back because both Scott, and Joe's footprints (easily separated by distinct tread and knowledge of sponsors) were getting clearer in the nearly 2 inches of newly fallen snow. As the descent continued the snow turned into 2 inches of super slush and then more sloppy mud trails. About 300 yards before the Mink Creek aid station I was told by a volunteer that the race had been shut down by the race directors and the 34ish mile mark of the Mink Creek aid station would be the finish, seconds later I was caught and passed by a relay runner. It was just after 11:00 am.

At about 10:30 in the morning the race directors made the decision to stop runners at their next major checkpoint. Ryan Mcdermott one of the RD's had been on course on Wild Mountain and saw first hand the carnage that the weather was dishing out to runners, people were very quickly getting hypothermic, disoriented and lost in the area above treeline. After helping several people get back on course and leading some back to the Gibson Jack Aid Station he got into a car and drove around to City Creek Aid Station to speak with Jared Campbell the other RD about stopping the race. Jared wasn't there though, he had gone up on a 4-wheeler the other way to help out runners after hearing reports from people coming into the aid station that runners were in a bad way. Ryan was able to call Jared on a cell phone while Jared was up high and a mutual decision to stop the race was made. I am sure it was a difficult decision to make, but it was absolutely the right decision. Runners were held at the next major aid station after that point.

I ran into the Mink Creek aid station finish line in 5:12:00, just a few minutes back from Scott who finished the Pocatello 50k first, and Joe who finished about a minute behind Scott. All in all I am very pleased with how the race turned out for me. I ran the first 34 miles almost 50 minutes faster than last year and was still feeling very good. My strategy in the race was to run the first two legs fast but save some for the last leg were I had planned to leave it all on the course. I was still within striking distance of both Scott and Joe and feel like there was still a lot of racing to be done. A friend who emailed me a few days before the race said this would be "a great race to compare year-over-year" and I couldn't agree more. There has been substantial improvement and I am nothing but optimistic about what is to come for the rest of the year. A huge thank you needs to go out to my wife Tanae who did an amazing job crewing for me at City Creek, my daughter Brynlee who was an awesome cheerleader and a full-on trooper as she endured the whole day we spent in the mountains, and all my friends and local runners who volunteered to go out on an unplanned sweep carrying clothes and food to help out any runners that may have been in need- thanks Andy, Dave, Jenna, Joe, Cory, and Kevin. On a final note all runners were quickly and efficiently accounted for by the Amateur HAM radio operator group that Ryan and Jared had brought in to help with the event. There were some really cold people out there and runners really worked together to take care of each other during the event. The camaraderie after the event was at a level much higher than I have seen at any other race before, epic adventures have a way of bringing people together, and this year's Pocatello 50(k) was nothing short of EPIC.

Gear:

La Sportiva Green Layer long sleeve race shirt

La Sportiva Fireblades (Crosslites would have done better in conditions, but my neuroma responds better to the fireblade)

La Sportiva headsweats visor

Ultimate Direction Handheld bottle (only drank one all day-no refills)

Nuun- Kona Cola

Sugoi gloves

brooks HVAC synergy short

Finally I didn't get many pictures of the race, if you are reading this and would like to share some of yours please leave a comment.

Pocatello 50 in 2 Days

Well, it has finally arrived. With just two days to go I am very optimistic that my foot has turned the corner, I am well rested, and it is time to race! Pocatello 50 is one of my favorite races to do because it gives me a chance to race in my backyard and show off my stomping rounds to a lot of other runners. It is a difficult course and the weather may be sub-optimal but regardless I am pretty amped for the race and ready to see what dividends training will pay out this year. There is some stout competition coming including but not limited to Karl Meltzer, Scott Jaime, Matt Hart, Sean Meissner, Joe Grant, AJW, Ty Draney, and a whole lot of other guys/gals that on any given day could throw down. I am pretty excited to get back to my cozy corner in the deep dark corner of the pain cave! I'll post a full report after the race.

Western Pocatello Skyline Loop

I have to admit that I have been down right awful in meeting my goal of updating this blog more regularly. Life seems to have accelerated around our home, between a heavy dose of school, big mileage training weeks and everything that is going on with family we have been running down right ragged. I decided to add some video from last weeks long run (that ended up being not so long because of my daughter's 3rd birthday party). The loop consisted of running nearly all of the western skyline visible from downtown Pocatello. The weather was pretty variable as well as the conditions, but all in all I was very happy with how the run went and how I felt the whole time. If you are interested in the loop that I put together don't hesitate to comment below maybe we can get out an run it together!

The first video is at the summit of Kinport mountain above Pocatello, about 6 miles and 2000' of climbing into the run.

Pocatello Western Skyline Run -1 from Luke Nelson on Vimeo.

This video is roughly half way through the run after about 4000' of climbing and running an awesome ridge line.

Pocatello Western Skyline Run -2 from Luke Nelson on Vimeo.

End of the run total of 26 miles and 5600' of climb and about the same of descent.

Pocatello Western Skyline Run -3 from Luke Nelson on Vimeo.

We had an awesome birthday party later that afternoon after the run!

On a side note I am very happy with how my training has been going up to this point in the year, especially considering a missed most of January due to my achilles injury. Summary of training up through May 1st:

Total Miles 1001.5

Total Ascent 151,000'

April Totals:

Miles 395

Ascent 63,000'

My Running Tour of Idaho

Well in typical fashion I am way behind in updating this blog. I am working on a post about my trip to Peru, but since I still have a lot to write about I am posting this in the interim. This past week I had the opportunity to go to Sun Valley for the Idaho Academy of Physician Assistants annual conference. I decided to take advantage of the trip so I left my rotation a couple hours early so I could get in some quality runs in on the way.

First stop was in the middle of the desert, the Big Southern Butte. Having grown up in Blackfoot, Idaho the Big Southern was something that has dominated the horizon for a good portion of my life, but I have never been out to or up it. After a couple of quick calls on the way out of town I got decent directions on how to access it and some beta about the route itself. Getting there does require traveling very close to the highly secure Idaho National Lab, but even with its proximity to the lab there weren't any guards in Humvees chasing me down while I past by. I parked at the French Cabin and ran the summit road from there. There was a lot of snow on the road but it was pretty frozen which made travel pretty easy with the exception of the occasional surprise of a hip deep post hole step. The view from the abandoned fire lookout on the top is absolutely amazing and something that should not be missed. All in all round trip is 10 miles with 2700' of gain.

View from where I parked the car, the route goes up the middle and wraps up to the left to the summit that is out of sight in this photo.

I hopped back in the car, drove to just outside of Arco, Idaho and then ran up another area that I had driven by but never been to. Just behind the town of Arco is a dramatic ridge line that has a whole lot of graffiti on it. I ran another 10 miles with 2800' of gain to access a high point then doubled back. The trails covered some amazing terrain that I really wished I had taken the camera for, but that just means that I have to go back again! After the run I jumped in the car and finished the drive to Sun Valley arriving just after dark in time to participate in the pre-conference festivities.

I snuck in an early morning run before the conference on Thursday and then met Hank Dart, Brad Mitchell (teammate on the La Sportiva Team) and a whole crew of other Sun Valley runners at the track in Hailey for "speed work". I had never done a track workout before and although running in circles felt strange I ended up getting a great workout that I would pay for the rest of the weekend. Friday I met Brad Mitchell over lunch to put down the Elkhorn Loop (?) a solid 8 miles in under an hour, Brad went back to work and I tacked on a few extra miles to get closer to the mileage goals of the week. I hurried back to make it to the afternoon classes of the conference while stuffing in some delicious calories (in form of a wrap from Wrapcity in Ketchum) in as fast as I could.

With the conference coming to a close the festivities made it hard to get much sleep that night and although I really needed it, I ended up only sleeping a few hours before I got up to meet Hank, Brad, and AJW for some morning laps on their beloved Carbonate before the final session of the conference. Pictured below, Carbonate is a wonderful ridge line near Hailey that is the host to the only available dirt to be ran in the valley. Starved after a long snowy winter these Sun Valley super stars run laps on Carbo to get miles and vertical on dirt. I indulged in a humble two laps that morning because of time constraints but, AJW had plans of four! Each lap is just over five miles with about 1300' of gain each lap. It is an awesome run! I am very grateful for Brad, Hank, and AJW's hospitality in letting me tag along for some great workouts while I was in town.

Carbonate Ridge as seen from Hailey, the trail climbs from the left to the windsock/pole about where the snow starts on the ridgeline.

I made it back to the conference just in time to catch some amazing lectures on orthopedic injuries and bring the IAPA conference to a close. I had planned to meet my friend Andy in Twin Falls to get in some running in the South Hills that he has been telling me about, but he had a change in plans and wasn't going to be able to make it. Still short on my weekly mileage goals I decided to try to give it a go with out a local trail guide. I drove to Twin without telling Andy I planned on going anyways, I had stopped in Hansen to get gas in my car and while I was pumping a very familiar looking Subaru pulled into the gas station. It was Andy whose change of plans had changed and he was on his way out to get in a mountain bike ride. We were both pretty surprised to see each other and he agreed to show me where to start to get a run in. Well it turns out that with the mix of ascent and descent that the trails in the South Hills of Twin it is a pretty good match for a biker and runner to travel together. We took turns beating on each other for about 18 miles of killer dry single track. I got back to the car with that great feeling of being totally worked!

By the end of my tour of running I was pretty tired but extremely pleased with the things I had been able to see and to experience, as well as being in some pretty amazing company while doing so. I can't wait to get out and visit some of those areas again and look forward to more "running tours" of Idaho and beyond!

Off to Peru

Tomorrow I have a huge opportunity to travel Peru as a part of Idaho Condor's annual Medical Expedition. I will be down there for two weeks, providing medical care to the incredible people who live in the mountainous villages of central Peru. This is a rare opportunity as a student to be part of this experience, the demands of most programs do not allow students to be gone for a number of days in a row, but I am lucky enough to be part of a very understanding program who sees this as the amazing learning opportunity that it will be. I am also very excited to be part of the Idaho Condor organization, it is one of few medical humanitarian groups focuses on being sustainable. They work very closely with local medical providers in order to actually make a long term impact on the health care status of the individuals we will be seeing. If you want more info on what Idaho Condor does and how you could become involved click here.

The trip to Peru gets even sweeter when I take into account the fact that I am going to get to run a fair amount while I am down there. I have been in touch with the good folks at inca runners that help organize running in and around Cusco, Peru as well as trips of the Inca trail. Unfortunately I found them a little late in the process of planning this trip and won't be able to run everything that I hoped, but none the less I hope to be able to get in some good runs with them in the small amount of free time that I have. I plan on posting more info about inca runners win I get back but in the meantime you can check them out here.

On the home front things have been going extremely well. I have running more than ever before, and seeing pretty much constant improvement. I have tried to be very cautious in how I have been training so that my body can adjust to the increased work load. It seems to be going better than expected at this point. I had a great opportunity to run with Ty Draney of the Patagonia Ultrarunning Team last weekend. It was awesome to get out for a long run, Ty came down to run on some of the newly dried out dirt, unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. It snowed the entire time we were out, we ran some dry dirt, some tacky clay, some sloppy mud, a lot of trails with a skiff of snow, and a section of mid-calf to knee deep snow. Even though the weather wasn't ideal it was still wonderful run. The next day my daughter Brynlee dressed up as a spring fairy to coax some warmer weather into the region. She must have been convincing enough because all this week I have been running in shorts and a tee shirt on lots of trails that have dried out since Ty was here. Below is a picture of the very convincing spring fairy.

2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup

Announcing the 2010 La Sportiva Mountain Cup Schedule, below is the press release:

La Sportiva brings you the 2010 premier trail race series, highlighting 10 of the best trail races in North America. Whether you are a middle-of-the-pack runner or a podium finisher, this series is for you! You might win, you will have fun!

Get details and sign up at www.mountaincup.com

Race Schedule

4/3/10 Mt. Penn Mudfest 15 km

Reading, PA

5/22/10 Jemez Mountain Half Marathon 13.1 mi

Los Alamos, NM

5/28/10 Rock2Rock Run 10 km

Asheville, NC

6/5/10 RothRock Challenge 30km

State College, PA

07/18/10 Barr Trail Mountain Race 12 mi

Manitou Springs, CO

08/07/10 Squaw Valley Mountain Run 3.6 mi

Squaw Valley, CA

08/07/10 Jupiter Peak Steeplechase 16 mi

Park City, UT

08/08/10 La Sportiva Eldora Trail Race 11 km

Nederland, CO

8/7/10 Mt. Ashland Hill Climb 13.3 mi

Ashland. OR

8/21/10 Up and Over 10 km

Taos, NM

http://mountaincup.com

Bear 100 Gear and update since race

Well it is about time that I get around to posting what I said I would in the Bear report. If you want to go straight to the gear scroll past this paragraph, otherwise I'd like to take a second to fill you all in on what has been going on since the Bear. I went back to work/school at the Midtown clinic in Ogden where I am doing my second rotation for PA school on Monday. Interestingly enough I saw several patients on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday that were diagnosed with the infamous H1N1 flu. I was starting to feel pretty good, the soreness was almost gone, the one blister I had during the race was nearly healed, a couple ugly toenails had fallen off, when on Wednesday night after work I started to cough... well I got sick, Thursday I woke up with a fever of 103, that climbed to 104 accompanied with vomiting. By 6:00 that night I was on my deathbed, and the wonderful Hall family that I am staying with took me to the Emergency room , where they gave my IV fluids, anti-emetics, pain killers, and anti- fever drugs. A couple of hours and a couple of liters of fluid later I felt a lot better. Sadly the sickness overcame the meds and Friday night I ended up back in the ER for another round of fluids, my blood tests from the day before came back and my flu test which was positive for H1N1, thanks patients at Midtown! My wonderful wife met me at the hospital on Friday night and took me to her cousins house outside of Park City and she nursed me back to health over the weekend. I stayed at the cousins until Wednesday when I felt I had enough strength to go back to the clinic for a half day. During the flu I lost 15 lbs and was lighter than when I started High School, I was pretty weak, but gratefully I was on the mend. I went for a very easy run on Thursday night just to stretch my legs, it didn't feel very good at all like I had hoped that it would. Last weekend I went back to Pocatello and being at home for the first time in 3 weeks was what I needed to get things back together, I went for a 3 hour mountain bike ride on Saturday, got plenty of rest and came back to Ogden Monday for another week at the clinic. This week I got out twice on my bike and tonight went for an hour long run on the Shoreline trail and up Taylor Canyon, I finally felt like a runner again, and man it is good to be on the run!

So after the update here is the gear list from the Bear 100 (with hyperlinks if you want more info on the gear):

Shoes: La Sportiva Fireblade

Socks: Defeet Trail 19 (2 pairs)

Clothes: Sugui 42k split short, La Sportiva Race Singlet and Tee shirt (both sugoi brand), Sugoi Icon armwarmers, La Sportiva team jacket by Sugoi as well.

Hydration: Ultimate Direction Fast Draw extreme hand bottles (4-my crew would have two ready for me at each aid station). During the night I used the Ultimate Direction Wasp pack.

Headlamp: Special make-up Ultrarunning Black Diamond Icon- Thanks Roch! In the morning I used a Black Diamond Ion so I would run slower and could stow it easily once it got light.

To Drink: I used Nuun in both hand bottles all day and at the aid stations at night. I used a lot of different flavors but prefered the Orange Ginger and Kona Cola (on the rocks is the best thing ever!). I also had a couple of Red Bulls, and 2 ensure protein drinks.

Food: I ate mostly gels for the first 60 miles, I had 1 flask of First Endurance EFS Liquid shot, and the entire flavor rainbow of Gu (37 of them throughout the race). During the night I sucked down another EFS flask. I also ate 6 or so Turkey avocado sliders, lots of orange slices, chicken noodle soup, one potato, some very smoked lentils (I ate them in the middle of the night, they had been cooked over the fire and you could taste the smoke), and two bottles of First Endurance Ultragen Recovery drink at the finish. In addition to food I also took about 12 Sportiene chews that were recommended by ultra-running super star Krissy Moehl, it is a type

of herbal anti-inflammatory (no ibuprofen induced kidney failure for me!) it really seemed to help keep the edge off of pain during the race.

Music: ipod shuffle from mile 19 to 60 (ironically I grabbed my wife's without noticing and listened to a little more pop than I would have preferred), once I picked up my pack at Beaver Ski area I switched to Ipod Nano with a pretty heavy metal mix that I used off and on to help fire me up to push hard in the last 25 miles.

Pacers: The Legendary Ryan Mcdermott, and "Fast" Evan Honeyfield.

Crew: My outstanding Parents, Steve and Diane Nelson, for the whole race, my brother in law Casey during the afternoon, my lovely wife Tanae for the evening and night section, and my beautiful daughter Brynlee for 3 aid stations in the evening.

The look I made after running a 50 mile Pr and realizing I still had 50 more to go!

I really can't believe the logistics that it took me to get everything ready for this race, if you have any questions about the gear that I used or if you would like me to do a full on review of any of it just drop a comment and I'll get you all the info I can. I am just finishing gathering pictures of the race and should post a bunch the first part of next week. Thanks for reading!

The Bear 100 Mile Endurance Run- The Full Monty Report

Disclaimer: this is a very long and detailed report, if you just want the finish details scroll down to the last paragraph, also over the next couple of weeks I will be posting photos, gear lists, and other thoughts about the running of my first (but definitely not last) 100 mile ultra.

Well it has been a little over 48 hours since I finished running the Bear 100, and it really hasn't settled in yet. I don't think I ever had my mind fully wrapped around the task of running that kind of distance. Actually I still don't think I have my mind wrapped around it, I mean 100 MILES! That is pretty darn far to cover on your own two feet, let alone doing it in one push. I have to admit that several times (too many to count) before the race I openly admitted that it was a crazy thing to attempt, but I felt justification in the fact that 100's of other people run these every year.

Fast forward to Thursday night before the race, I went to the pre-race meeting to get the info on the course. When I was dropping off my drop bags I joked with Leland Barker the race director that I wasn't sure if I would be capable of finishing, to which he threatened "if you don't I'll have to kick your butt!" I wasn't entirely convinced that he was joking so I made sure to deepen my resolve to finish. To those of you who have been around me much during the last two summers since I started trail racing you know very well how nervous I am the day before the race, well this was no exception, the butterflies were in full effect from the moment I woke up on Thursday until I trotted off of the line on Friday morning. I slept poorly, I had a hard time eating, I was anxious, my resting heart rate was up- frankly I was a mess. All I wanted to do was start running so I could get to the task at hand.

Considering the race as a whole I had an absolutely awesome day overall, I got a little queasy a couple of times but never threw up, even at the thought of downing another gel after having eaten 40+ I was able to keep my stomach contents down. I suffered for a while when I got too hot and couldn't cool down, but none of this really brought me down too far.

I had the opportunity to run the first 9ish miles with ultra-running hot shot Geoff Roes, who turns out to be a pretty nice guy. Geoff, Eric from Montana and I ran together behind a small lead pack, we went pretty conservative and enjoyed the steady climb up and out of the dark while chatting about other races and fun runs that we have done. Just before the Logan Peak aid station Geoff pulled ahead and that would be the last time I would see him. I think Eric stopped at the aid station, and I didn't, so I was alone. As a matter of fact, that was pretty much the last time I saw any other runner on the course. I cruised into the Leatham Hollow aid station a few minutes off of the split that I had hoped for, but given my number one goal was to finish the race I didn't let it get to me. I was glad to see my mom and dad just before the aid station ready to try there hand at crewing for the first time. The had everything ready for me to switch shirts, drop my headlamp, grab my ipod shuffle, switch bottles and be on my way. It was energizing to see so many familiar faces and have them cheer for me as I went by. Things were pretty unremarkable through the next aid station. At the Richards Hollow aid station Pat took good care of me and hurried me on my way.

Just after the aid I caught another runner, he wasn't carrying any water, pack or anything, I don't think he even had socks on, and honestly he didn't look real well. He surged a few times but I eventually passed him and didn't see him again. This section of the course was beautiful, the temps were nice, and the trail very runnable. There was a pretty long section of dirt road that had pretty deep moon-dust that I didn't love but it went by pretty quick. At the Cowley aid station I took a couple extra minutes to try to get some food down, as well as extra water because it was starting to get hot, again my parents took awesome care of me. I cruised out of the aid pretty fired up to push for a while. There was not a lot of shade for the next several miles and my stomach started to complain a little about how I was hitting it with gels so regularly, I slowed a little to try to get it to settle down which it did. As I approached the start of the out and back coming into Right hand Fork I saw Troy Howard just finishing that section meaning he was about a mile ahead. I quickly got to the aid, ate, poured water on my to try to cool off, and just before I left, Casey (my wife's brother who lives in Logan) warned it was a tough section ahead. Great, I thought, a tough section in the hottest part of the day- this is going to be awesome!

Casey was right, it was a pretty tough section, there was very little shade, and my body was starting to complain a little about what I was doing to it. This was pretty much the hardest part of the race for me physically, I was bonking and had a hard time getting things back under control. I ended up jumping in a beaver pond at the top of Temple fork to cool off, and then tempted fate by drinking out of the same creek because I had ran out of water and needed more fluid. I had to dig pretty deep to keep running to the Temple Fork aid Station. Once again my parents were awesome, crewing me like experienced pro's, and with a little extra help from Karl Meltzer about what I needed to be eating I started out feeling a little better. The climb from Temple to Tony Grove was more difficult than I expected and this is probably the lowest point of the race for me, I let things get to me mentally, and really fell of the wagon for a while. It ended up being pretty emotional for me coming into the Tony Grove aid station, I guess for a couple of reasons: I had just gotten over a tough stretch, my feet hurt, I had just broken my PR for the furthest I had ran (previously it was 50 miles in 10:13) now at 51 miles that I covered in 10:13 meaning I also PR'd for a 50 as well, and also my wife and daughter had now joined my folks as my crew. There is nothing quite as awesome as having your 2 1/2 year old daughter say "daddy runnin' fast" as you hobble into an aid station. After a few minutes of foot repair, eating and drinking I headed out, eager to get to the next aid to pick up Ryan Mcdermott who would be pacing me.

The run from Tony Grove to Franklin Basin was gorgeous, I was feeling pretty good, and was super stoked to see Ryan waiting for me just outside of the aid station. Ryan quickly took inventory of how I was doing, and started lining things up to make a quick aid station that would meet all of my needs. I can't express how grateful I was to have Ryan to run with for the next fifteen miles, he was very energetic, extremely supportive, and really helped me to get my head back in the game to start moving quickly again. He snapped things into place at the Logan River aid station, making sure I ate enough, and then hurried me on towards Beaver Mountain Ski area. Ryan's continuous support and watchful eye got things in place and trending the right direction to make the last part of the race a success.

My super crew was ready to rock again at Beaver, they had things already for me, they even rubbed vaseline on some hot spots on my feet while I sucked down some chicken noodle soup- they were awesome. Before I knew it I had left Ryan behind and started out on the last 25 miles with "Fast Evan Honeyfield". I had told Evan before the race that when I got to him we would be leaving it all out on the trail, he had some mercy at first and let me move slow to get my stomach under control from the soup and things that I had eaten at Beaver, but before too long we were pushing right along. We made pretty good time to Gibson Basin, where we were treated to smoked lentil soup, but we didn't stop for long. Just outside of the aid I thought I saw lights coming up on us, and the hammer went down. We ran every step to Beaver Creek aid, where my dad and wife were still diligently crewing, at this aid station we were in and out, I made the mental decision that everything hurt as bad as it was going to so I might as well push. We made good time running and power-hiking pretty quickly to the final aid station- ranger dip.

This time a sucked down soup, tucked a red bull into my Ultimate Direction Pack, and went out ready to bring it home. Evan did an awesome job pulling me forward in this section. He would run just a little ahead, if I sped up, so would he, always just pulling me along. When we crested the hill and looked into the valley one thought came into my mind-shit- it was a long ways down and my legs were trashed. As we came out of the trees Evan spotted a light moving down the trail a ways ahead, without saying a word it was obvious we were going to try to catch up, again Evan led , pulling me on as I tried to keep my sore legs turning over. The descent was long, steep, and loose, but we motored right along.

Just as the trail turned and leveled out, we rounded a corner to come upon a runner with a hand held light- it was Leland. I was glad to see a familiar face, and as we all pushed down the atv trail together he turned to me and said " well I guess I don't have to kick your butt!" I was so happy to hear him say that, it lifted my spirits and tired legs. Leland took point for our running group and led us to the stream crossing just before the finish. As we crossed the river we saw another set of lights ahead, the three of us all sped up a little and in short time we caught up to Phil, who was pushing along having an out-of body-experiencing and on his way to crushing his 100 mile PR. We ran past Phil, he called to Leland who dropped back for a minute then caught back on. As we got to the corner 100 yards or so before the finish line, Leland said his foot started to hurt and he dropped back, my dad was waiting at the corner and he ran the last 1/4 mile in with Evan and I. I was stunned that I had finished 100 miles and all I could really do was sit down on the grass exhausted.

I finished at 3:55:19 am or in 21:55:19 good enough for fourth place. I am very happy that I never threw up, didn't get lost, and not once did I ever think of quitting. My crew-my dad, mom, Tanae, and Casey were the best I could have asked for, THANK YOU. Ryan and Evan were amazing pacers, I am sure that I wouldn't have done it without their support and encouragement. I owe a special thank you to my wife for putting up with all of my eccentricities as I trained and prepared for this, and for my daughter for always being excited for dad to go running. There are so many people from the ultra-running community that shared very valuable advice and encouragement- you know who you are- thank you. I need to also thank all my friends and training partners in Pocatello and beyond who supported me and ran with me this summer, including those who came out to the Tuesday night runs on a regular basis. Also thanks goes out to all of the cool people I met at all the races we went to this summer, thank you for making us part of your extended running family. Finally, I send a huge thank you out to Buzz Burrell, and Laura Fryer at LaSportiva who took a chance on a kid from Idaho and provided amazing sponsorship throughout this summer. Look for more info and pictures from the Bear 100, as well as some fall adventure runs that are in the works in the near future.

Jupiter Peak Steeplechase

First I have to apologize for the blog silence, since school broke for summer (10 days) I have been away from my computer and technology in general at my parents house in Northern New Mexico, I have a lot of pictures and video to post on that later. First things first though- yesterday's race in Park City- the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. This race is part of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup, and because of that it is a big deal. I had the awesome opporunity to meet some of my Sportiva Team mates- Jason Bryant, Megan Kimmel, Catilin Smith, and Bernie Boetcher plus two other that I already knew- Brad Mitchell and Karl Metzler. Apart from the large number of La Sportiva athletes there were also a lot of other sponsored runners from all over the US.

Ok, there were a lot of big names at the race, "stop freaking out" I told myself, but it wasn't easy, I look up soo much to a lot of these runners and I felt like just walking around with my mouth gaping wide open asking for autographs or something. Also given the concentration of talent I knew that the race was going to be tough, lots of very strong runners. The course itself was right up my alley, it had 3307' of elevation gain/loss in 16 miles, the first half up and the second half down. I enjoy running uphill, I tend to be pretty good at it especially if it is technical, the only downfall to the race is the downhill, I don't love to run down but was hoping to hold my own.

Warming Up with La Sportiva Team mates- Photo Tanae Nelson

I warmed up with a Jason, Caitlin, Brad, Bryon Powell (irunfar.com), and Shiloh Meilke (Vasque). It was cool to be with lots of other people in yellow. After about 15 minutes of warming up I stripped down to the Sugoi La Sportiva Race singlet, Sugoi 42 k shorts and grabbed my Ultimate Direction hand bottle filled with EFS and headed to the starting line.

The race started at a reasonable pace with a lead pack somewhat quickly separating from the rest, as the climb continued the pack kind of exploded with a couple of runners pulling away and the rest of us stringing out behind them. I held about 6th until Bernie Boetcher fellow Sportiva runner hammered by about 1/2 up the climb. Just before the top on the very steep scramble section I passed one runner, who mumbled something about this being a "running race" as we power hiked up the steep section, I pulled back into 6th, but knew it probably wouldn't last because of my marginal descending skills. I have found through this summer of racing that I am much better and enjoy ascending quiet a bit more than it's downhill counterpart. I ran past the false summit and the real summit still in 6th and started the descent, the course wasn't marked really well at this point and I held back a little to make sure I wasn't pulling a repeat of the Speedgoat by getting off course. As soon as I spotted the runner I passed on the last ascent headed the same way I was I turned it up hoping to hold him off at least for a while. I wasn't able to hold him off too long and he passed me going very fast.

After seeing all of the runners at the start I told myself " make sure you finish top ten", I figured that was a pretty reasonable goal, and when I was passed I fell into 7th and felt a little discouraged it didn't leave a lot of room for error. I poured down the hills as fast as I could, but to no avail was passed again, this time by Jon Allen from Logan who is a very talented runner. Okay I said to myself that is it, it is time to hurt and hold 8th. I shifted gears, to a somewhat painful pace and pushed with all my tired legs could do, near the end we turned on to the Spiro trail which has lots of switchbacks and out of the corner of my eye I spotted Brad Mitchell creeping up on me, I opened it up as much as a I could knowing it wasn't far to the finish. I managed to hold him and finished 8th overall in 2:03:01, Brad finished 12 seconds behind me, if he had a little more distance he would have caught me for sure.

The La Sportiva Mountain Running Team- Photo Tanae Nelson

Considering all of the running and road biking I did during my vacation last week, I was very happy with my overall time and effort. The field was very deep, deeper than any other race I have done this year and I feel like 8th was pretty solid. I also had the great opportunity to cool down with the other runners on the La Sportiva Team, getting to know the people you admire as runners is pretty awesome! I am trying to get a post put together of the runs I did in New Mexico while on vacation, including some pics and video from the new flip camera we just bought. Check back soon! Also check out El Vaquero Loco 50k- my wife and I will both be headed to Star Valley Wyoming to race in that this weekend to celebrate her 29th birthday. She will be running the 25 k her furthest distance yet- she is going to do great!

Wasatch Speedgoat- A lesson from the Pain Cave

What a beautiful morning, Snowbird Tram- Photo Greg Norrander

Saturday I toed the line for the Wasatch Speedgoat 50k, the brain child of superstar ultra-runner Karl Metzler. I have an attraction to technical, elevation laden races and with Karl's claim of the "the toughest 50k in the land", I expected a fun filled day in the pain cave. The race starts at the tram deck at Snowbird ski area, where I think 126 of us lined up, heard some brief instructions from Karl and then were sent off into the first of many ascents. Right from the start one runner took off at what seemed to be a totally unsustainable pace- it was less then five minutes later I caught and passed the runner, pulling into the lead. Sometimes after lots of training and racing it all falls into place, Saturday was shaping up to be that day for me. I felt outstanding- strong legs, controlled breathing, quick pace- it was starting out as one of the best runs I had ever had. After the first climb-descent-climb combination I ran into a speed bump in the form of a moose w/a small calf. Immediately my mind shot to the mental picture of Karl getting chased at Hardrock and I stopped dead in my tracks. I yelled, waved my arms and did all I could to try to get her moving, but all she did was look annoyed. Within a minute or so Christian caught up to me and together we were able to scare her off... frustrated that I had lost the lead I had built I pushed the pace a little to try to get it back, Christian had been training for Hardrock and was FIT! He was on the waiting list and unfortunately didn't get in , but he was clearly ready for this race. It took a while but I eventually I pulled away and put some distance between us. I pulled pretty hard the rest of the way up the climb to the top of the tram, hit the aid station, and hammered on towards the climb over Baldy.

Feeling good at the top of the the first major climb near the tram- Photo Greg Norrander

At this point I was feeling awesome, moving quickly I continued to distance myself from the crowd over Baldy and down towards Mineral Basin, the flags were set clearly but I thought I had read that the course went over the front so I delayed a minute until I could see Christian make the turn as well, to which I promptly charged towards Larry's aid station at the bottom of Mineral Basin.

I hit the aid station, asked for a bottle refill and was told, " go down the road a little ways and turn right", cool I thought let's make this lead bigger, I hit the split button on my watch and I turned it up, striding out down the road, I noticed that the strap on my handheld had come undone when it was filled and fiddled with it to get it re-threaded and then opened it up down the road. After a few minutes of running I started to notice that I hadn't seen a marker in a while and got a BAD feeling, I ran a little further-still nothing then I came across a mess of intersections all unmarked, panic set in, I tried right- it looped right back to where I was-CRAP I missed the turn, I turned around started up the hill only to see Christian coming at me, he was having the same bad feeling and we turned around climbing back towards the aid station. Well about 30 feet from the aid station was the right turn we had missed, I hit the split on my watch it read 18:30- we lost nearly 20 minutes and now I was in around 11th. While fiddling with my handheld I had ran right passed the well marked corner, Christian had dropped a bottle about the same spot and must have done the same.

As you might expect I was mad, mostly at my self for not seeing the corner, I tried not to dwell on it, and put my focus into catching Eric Storheim who was now in the lead. I passed several runners on the climb up sinners pass, and several more on the descent into Mary Ellen Gulch, by the time I hit the double track I was back into third and running hard. I passed Krissy Moehl, who was checking course markers- she told me to "run smart" which actually made me reflect for a second on the pace I was pushing to catch up- I backed off just a little. I rolled into Roch Horton's aid station where Eric and Jay were still fueling up. Roch sprayed me down with cold water and scolded me for not drinking enough out of my bottle's- he was right I had been so focused on catching up I was blowing eating and drinking. I drank some red bull cola, got sprayed again and headed out about 2 min behind the leaders. I knew a big climb was coming and put the mantra of "come on back to me" in my mind. It took a mile or so but I eventually reeled them in, and chose to hang with them for a bit to recover from the effort I had just put in to catch up.

When I figured we were pretty close to the top I made a move to pull into the lead, Eric and Jay dropped in right behind me, we passed Krissy again, just before the top, as we started down the hill I remembered Krissy's advice from the Pocatello 50-"Just let it roll on the downhill", which I did, I pulled into Larry's aid station in the lead, but barely, I grabbed an S-cap and glass of water and headed out right behind Eric who didn't stop at the aid at all. About 100 feet from the aid station the wheels came off my bus, I got really hot, dizzy, and began to have tunnel vision. I stopped running and started walking slowly-I was in trouble. Jay zipped by and I got cozy deep in the pain cave.

Digging deep in the dark part of the pain cave- Photo Greg Norrander

All I could muster out on the climb out of Mineral towards the tunnel was a walk-a slow walk in the park kind of walk. The perfect race was over. I had pushed too hard to catch up and was paying the price. I got to the tunnel aid station had some more coke and hopped into the tunnel-it was cool in there and was a great relief from the heat, I kind of just wanted to lay down in the tunnel where it was cold, but embraced the dark end of the pain cave and started digging to see if I could reel the leaders back in. I let the next descent roll, and hit the climb up the ridge under the tram feeling better- not great but better.

Near the top of the second to last climb-Photo Greg Norrander

I put that climb behind me, descended into little cloud bowl(?) and started up the snow. I was getting real hot again so I stuffed my shorts w/snow and packed handfuls into my armpits to try to cool down, it worked and also kept me moving. Just pass the top of the snow Jay and Eric passed me on their way down a solid 15-20 minutes ahead of where I was. I put my head down and once again started digging in the pain cave. I got some words of encouragement at the top from Jared Campbell, Missy Berkel, and Sarah and Sterling Acree as I turned down the final descent. I pushed with all that I had left down the descent but was unable to catch Eric who finished 1st and Jay 2nd, I finished in 3rd, and after all was said and done was very happy with my effort and how the day ended up.

A few thoughts on the Speedgoat- Karl is sick, he managed to squeeze in 10,748' of gain and the same loss in the course, just when you thought you were done climbing, he sent you down and up again to make sure you were getting your money's worth. Moral of the story, don't get off course, it nearly guarantees a visit to the deep recesses of the pain cave. I loved the race- for some reason I enjoy a good suffer, it really makes you feel complete when you have to push harder than you think you might be able. Can't wait for next year's race-hopefully no scenic detours next time!

Full Results Here

Great Pics by Jared Campbell and Greg Norrander