USATF Marathon Trail National Championships

Double O Arch

I traveled to Moab, Utah for the USATF Trail National Championships. I was enticed by this race because I had never been to Moab before and I'd always enjoyed the USATF Championship races. Good courses, good competition, and cool places. This year, the location was no exception! I arrived a couple days early and was able to check out Arches National Park. It was beautiful, and so different from anywhere else I've been. Arches was spectacular! I'm glad I had the opportunity to visit.

Arches National Park

 The itself race was interesting. The website had shown some rocky terrain and a section of trail where a rope was needed to safely cross. It honestly looked like a lot of fun. I love races that have some tough terrain to break up the monotony. I tend to do well on those courses because I'm able to have fun with it.

The day before the race I checked out the course with Ryan and Natalie Bak, who also came down from Bend to race. Upon inspection we realized that the race was going to have a few more 'fun obstacles' than we expected.

Ryan checking out the trail

The morning of the race was clear and sunny, perfect temperature for running. I slowly made my way up near the front of the starting line, not really sure I belonged there with so many elite women racing! Everyone was super friendly though and before I knew it, we were off, barreling down the narrow, rocky trail.

View of the cliff we ran up. Picture doesn't do it justice.

  The race was hard. I wish I could say I enjoyed it, but I suffered. I'm not even really sure why it was so difficult. It seemed like I could never get into a rhythm- I was either climbing up over boulders, running through sand, or using my hands and legs to crawl down over rock ledges. The trail was not crazy technical, but there was never a point where it let up. It was exhausting because I had to constantly think about exactly where I was going to put my next footstep. It was also hard to follow the trail at times, because there was often not a designated trail, only flagging. Since I was spending so much time looking at my feet it was easy to miss some of the flagging. I ended up going off trail a few times, which was no one's fault but my own, but still annoying.

The course consisted a a big 21 mile loop followed by a smaller 5 mile loop that contained all the 'obstacles'. There were also two out and back checkpoints where we had to run to the checkpoint, designated by an orange kite, punch our bibs with a special hole punch, and turnaround to head back to the course. Adventure race, anyone?

Photo: www.HunterImagery.com

I think I settled into 5th place around mile 5 or 6 and stayed there until the finish. Due to the nature of the course, everyone was really spread out. There was a good 10 mile stretch where I could see no one ahead of me or behind me. No man's land. Not a good place to be when you are suffering. The last 5 miles were particularly challenging for me because I was tired, dehydrated, and not thinking very positively. I wasn't in the mood the climb up the side of boulders or use ropes to propel me down a rock slope. I think I would have loved the ropes and ladders more if the race in general had a better mix of crazy challenging sections interspersed with more runable sections. I almost ended up catching the 4th place woman, but in the end I didn't have the mental capacity to push myself into the next gear. I was just done. I crossed the finish line in 5th, thankful to have just finished! I took a couple steps past the finish line, realized how bad I felt, and immediately walked myself to the medical tent. I had stopped fueling and drinking during the last 5 miles and was paying for it. Not smart. I was ok after a bit of shade, fluids, and salt though.

Photo: www.HunterImagery.com

Although the race course was not what I was expecting, I think it was good for building mental toughness and making me stronger. I think every runner I talked to had a similar experience and wasn't feeling so great after finishing. I thought about dropping out more than a few times, but am glad I didn't. Now as I look back, the lessons I learned were different from many races, but still just as important.

1. Just keep running. Yes, things get hard and races don't go how you plan but you have to just keep going. 

2. Be flexible. In this race I was constantly having to change gears: jump up over something, turn sideways to fit through a narrow rock ledge, use my hands to climb down a huge rock drop off, run under something, etc. I challenged myself to be adaptable and accept everything that I encountered. 

3. Keep a positive attitude. It's hard to stay positive, especially when things don't go as planned. This is probably the issue I struggled with most during the Moab marathon. There were times when I did a good job staying positive and there were also times when I just gave up. I realized I need to work on my attitude when things start to come undone. I think recognizing where both of my strengths and weaknesses occur is the best way to learn and become stronger in the future. So here's to the future…. 

Enjoying Moab the next day!

Making my way down the 'trail'

So much sunshine!

Ryan on the race course

Why I'm not running

What I've been up to…..

Life has been a bit interesting the past couple months. I've had to put all my race plans on hold and restructure my daily activities to accommodate a fractured hip. On August 24th (2 days after my birthday!) I had an encounter with a car while riding my bike. Needless to say, the the car won and I ended up in urgent care. After various x-rays, MRI's, and evaluations I was diagnosed with an avulsion fracture in my left lesser trochanter (bone that connects the femur and hip). It was extremely painful to do anything beside lay on my right side. I spent the next week totally sedentary, catching up on all my movie watching and book reading. Thankfully my friend Taryn came up from Corvallis to keep me company during the first few days!

Everyone gets injured at some point and it sucks, but this injury was especially frustrating because it was out of my control. My emotions varied from sad to depressed to angry. It's one thing to take a few days easy, but it's another to be forced to bedrest. And I am NOT good at resting all day! After a few days of feeling sorry for myself I tried to focus on the positive and look forward to the future. The accident could have been a lot worse. I walked (well, not quite walked) away with only an avulsion fracture and a lot of soft tissue damage. Plus, I suddenly had more free time to do other things like:

• Visit my Family

I flew back to Minnesota to visit my family and attend a friends wedding in Wisconsin. My dad had hurt his back, so the two of us were quite the pair. My mom and I stayed in a little hotel in Bayfield, WI for a wedding. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had a great time exploring (slowly). It was nice to get back to my roots!

Sara & Ben's Wedding

My mom and I

Lake Superior

Bayfield Marina

• Study 

All PhD students must pass comprehensive exams after completing coursework before starting the dissertation. The comprehensive exams consist of written (2 hours/ committee member) and oral (2 hours). Since I had 4 committee members, I had 8 hours of written + 2 hours of oral. Anything in the field of study is fair game for comps. Meaning, I had to study everything I knew to prepare. This took quite a bit of time! Thankfully, I am done! I passed both written and oral exams and am a doctoral candidate. Sure feels good!

• Build up my coaching website: Endurance By Stephanie

I finally started coaching! It took me some time to figure out how I wanted to format the training plans and begin. Now I have a couple clients and am off and running!

This past month I've been able to start running again! I'm still not 100% healed, but I've still been able to do some cool things:

• Watch the Flagline 50k: It was hard not to race this year, but Riley and I had a good time cheering on friends.

• Set a new course record at the Pilot Butte Challenge (8:32). I've never done the race before, so it was fun to try and get my name on the board. 

• Hike South Sister with Ian Sharman (TNF teammate) and Taryn

Taryn and I hiking up 

Morraine Lake

Taryn and I at the top

Middle & North Sister 

• Circumnavigate Mt Hood with an AWESOME group of people. It was SO beautiful! All the fall colors were out and we had a long time (43 miles in 10 hours) to enjoy them. 

Mt. Hood

Beautiful fall colors along the trail

Ramona Falls
Mike, me, Zach, Max, Ellie, & Amy

So much fun!

Taking a break for some lunch

Amy and I running above tree line

• And Finally, I had my debut back to racing! I ran Super Dave's Down & Dirty Half last Sunday. I finished second to Natalie Bak, who is a good friend and super fast runner! It wasn't my best race, but it was good to be back in the loop. I'm looking forward to the next few months!

Transrockies: The North Face Bendites

Once again, Zach and I decided to team up and take on the 6-day, 120 mile GORE-TEX transrockies race across the Colorado rockies. Last year we tackled the race as an unprepared, undertrained duo not really sure what we were getting ourselves into. We ended up finishing third, but almost killed ourselves in the process. This year we were much more prepared and ready to get revenge. Turns out training and working together pays off! 

Celebrating the win!

We started the trip by flying into Denver and spending a few days with two of my best friends from high school. It was so nice to relax and have some fun before heading out to race. On Sunday afternoon we took the bus up to Buena Vista for the start of the race. Again, we had a couple days to relax and get used to the altitude since most of Transrockies is at or above 10,000ft! It was so much fun to see the town transform and become alive with energy as the runners started to arrive. Hundreds of runners filled the streets, shops, and restaurants in anticipation of the start of the race. 

Buena Vista, CO

This year there was a big crew from Bend, including Zach and I, Jeff and Katie Caba, Jeff Browning, Rod Bien, Max King, Mario Mendoza, and honorable mentions to Sean Meissner (past resident) and Jorge Maravilla (future resident :) It was so much fun to have such a great group of talented individuals and really puts Bend on the map as a mecca for runners!

Bend runners at the front 

Photo: Jonathan McLeod

One of my favorite things about Transrockies is the people. There are so many great people both racing and working at the event! I'm so sad to leave all my runner friends after a week of bonding! It's amazing how running instantly draws us to one another. After a week of running, laughing, and suffering together it's amazing how close everyone becomes. It's truly a special week and the last day is so bittersweet! 

Open Mixed Podium
Photo: Jonathan McLeod

Zach and I had a spectacular week! Each day we got a little bit stronger and increased our lead by a little more. Thanks to our patience (ok, Zach's patience not mine :) and some great competition we were able to push ourselves and throw down some fast times. Some really impressive performances by Dave James & Amy Lane (2nd place) and Geoff Reid & Amy Schneeberg (3rd) really made us work to earn the win. I was so impressed by both teams, both on and off the race course. Truly some great people!

Photo: Chris Hunter

 It was really cool to finish first this year, but the thing I will remember most from the week is all the fun I had. Each day the race course took us across some beautiful scenery up and down mountains with breathtaking views. At the end of the day it really didn't matter if you were first or last, just that you were out there taking it all in. I kept thinking to myself "how cool is it that you are running across the top of a mountain right now?" I would recommend transrockies to any runner looking for a fun adventure in the mountains or an opportunity to attend running camp for adults. I know I'll definitely be back :)

Photo: Chris Hunter

Finishing a great week of running!
Photo: Chris Hunter

Mt. Ashland Hill Climb

Climbing to the finish line

Ah, the Mt. Ashland Hill Climb. The race has kind of become a ritual for me each August. For the past 4 years I have traveled down with other nordic skiers to participate in the half marathon hill climb. The race itself is painful, and never gets any easier, but the experience is always great! We try to make a weekend out of it and do something fun on the Sunday after the race.

Each year I've run I've gotten a bit faster and come across the finish line first. This year I still finished first but was about a minute slower. Oh well, it was pretty hot out! Most people's times were quite a bit slower. I've been just shy of the record and thought maybe this was year I could crack Evelyn Dong's (a fellow XC Oregon nordic skier) time. No such luck. I was actually about a minute slower than last year. I blame the heat. Most runners were actually a bit slower this year too. Full results & story: Ashland Mail Tribune

Hal Koerner finishing

Runners making their way to the finish

So, those of you who know Zach know he is infamous for his 'adventures'. I can't count the number of times we've gone to do something and it's turn into some sort of epic sufferfest. Deep down I kind of like it though :) The day after the Ashland Hill Climb has always been some sort of 'adventure'. One year, we went on a bike ride to 'spin our legs out'. I guess I missed the memo that it was a 60 mile ride with a 15 mile hill climb in the middle and a sprint finish. I bonked. The next year we biked around Crater Lake, which if you've been there you know you are either biking 3 mph or 30 mph. There is no flat. I think we biked about 70 miles. This year may have topped all other adventures. We decided that it would be a good idea to run down after the race. Since we have TransRockies coming up soon Zach thought it would be a good idea to run the 13.3 miles back down to get used to running downhill. Somehow I thought it sounded like a good idea too. After running hard for 2 hours up to the top of Mt. Ashland, we turned around and started running back down. The beginning wasn't too bad since there was still aid stations set up near the top. After we got to mile 10, as in 10 miles to run back into town, the aid stations were closed. It was around that time that it started to get hot. I mean really hot. It was like we got hit by a wall of 100 degree heat as we descended into the valley. I ran out of water about halfway down. Somehow we made it back to the house AND in time to watch the men's olympic 10k on NBC. Success! If that wasn't enough craziness, the next morning we drove over to Oakridge to join some friends running the second half (30 miles) of the Where's Waldo 100k. It was an awesome run! There was a small group of us, including Meghan Arbogast and Kami Semick, who are two a my good friends. It took us a little under 6 hours to run and we finished right before a thunderstorm rolled in. Double success!

Top of Maiden Peak with Kami, Meghan, and Zach

I had to take a few days laying on the couch watching olympics to recover. Such a great race weekend, and just enough time to get recovered before TransRockies…stay tuned……

SOB 50 miler

With Ecuador 50 miler still in my legs I attempted to race another 50 miler just two weeks later. I contemplated dropping down to the 50k race or skipping it all together, but in the end I decided to just give it a go. I really wanted to race and I also wanted to try out some new nutrition strategies. I went into the race with an attitude that I was just going to have fun. 

Photo: Long Run Pictures

Well, I sure did have fun and I also had a great race! For the first time during a race I used PocketFuel as my primary energy source early on. I have never felt so good and for the first time I didn't have any stomach issues. I started taking PocketFuel within the first half hour and felt great! Not only does it taste good, but it also works! Success! 

Beautiful Views!
Photo: Long Run Pictures

Photo: Ashland Mail Tribune

Ashland is one of my favorite places to race. I love the town an the people and have a great time every time I visit. Over the years I've gotten to know quite a few of the Ashland crew, including Jenn Shelton. I really enjoy racing with Jenn because we always chat and have a good time. SOB was no different. We started off together and were just running and talking for the first couple hours. It was so much fun and  the miles flew by.

Jenn and I running & chatting early on
Photo: Long Run Pictures

My common sense kicked in around mile 17 and I got a little concerned about the pace we were running. I've learned the hard way about starting too fast, and my tendency is to be conservative at the beginning and walk the hills. The problem was the trail at SOB was so runable!! The hills were not quite steep enough to walk so I ended up running everything.

View from the trail
Photo: Long Run Pictures

Photo: Long Run Pictures

Jenn and I reached the 25 mile turn in 3hrs30min, and I was definitely a little worried. I didn't think I could keep up our current pace for the next 25 miles. I mentioned that I was going to chill out for a bit and Jenn responded by bopping past me and taking off down the hill. Grrrr. I really didn't feel like running by myself for the next 4 hours so I tried to at least maintain contact. Tim Olson saved me for a bit by running and chatting with me for a mile or so. He was helping out with the race and running a bit with some of the runners in the 50 mile race near the turn around. I was so grateful to have Timothy to run with, he is such a genuinely nice person!

Suffering together
Photo: Long Run Pictures

After a few more miles I hit the big uphill. Again, it was such a runable grade that I couldn't really walk. I had more or less caught back up to Jenn at this point and we suffered together making our way up the hill. I swear we ran uphill for over an hour. I'm not sure how many miles it was, but it took FOREVER! Jenn and I yo-yoed back and forth taking turns leading for the next several miles. Even though we weren't talking much anymore it was really nice to have someone else to suffer with!

At mile 41 we entered an aid station and I decided it was time to go. I left the aid station first, put my head down and ran hard. And I didn't let up, I suffered and kept moving. One by one the miles went down and I found myself with only a few miles to go. The last 9 miles also had quite a bit of climbing and I did my best to run! We had met back up with the 50k course at this point, so I was able to catch and pass a lot of runners. Everyone I passed was so courteous and let me squeeze by on the narrow trail. So many runners were cheering as I ran by and it really motivated me to keep going. Plus, I didn't want Jenn to catch me again :)

Pushing hard
Photo: Long Run Pictures

I ended up crossing the finish line first in 7hr34min. It was also a new course record, well technically any time would have been a new course record because it was the first year of the 50 mile distance :) I was pretty excited, 7:34 is my fastest time, and I was proud of how hard I pushed myself despite having tired legs. I really have to thank Jenn for my fast time, she really made me work!! She ended up finishing a little ways back, all smiles though! After I left her at mile 41 she had an epic bonk. Props to her for sticking it out and finishing!

It was a great day for other Bend runners too: Zach finished 4th in the 50 miler and Jeff Browning, hot off his San Diego 100 win, finished 6th. In the 50k, both Max King and Marci Kilmek took home the wins. Awesome!

Ashland Mail Tribune Write-up:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20120715%2FSPORTS%2F207150316

Never Stop Exploring…..

Video: TNF Endurance Challenge Ecuador

This past week I was in Quito, Ecuador for The North Face Ecuador 80k trail race. I had such an amazing time! It was so different racing in South America and I got to spend the week with some amazing people and run in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It was truly an amazing experience.

Never Stop Exploring…… That was the theme of the week. There were so many crazy things that we encountered over the week and we really just had to roll with it. Everything was an adventure, which made it even more exciting.

View of the Cumbaya Valley near Quito

TNF Training Run

Pre-race Technical Meeting

Hanging out at 4000 meters!

Quito is at 3000 meters, which is approximately 10,000ft above sea level. Thankfully we arrived a few days before the race to acclimate to the altitude. We did a few runs   in Quito and also took a tram to the top of the mountain to really get some altitude training and see the beautiful view!  I usually do ok with altitude and was happy that I didn't feel too bad running so high. I was expecting pretty hot weather since Ecuador is very close to the equator, but due to the high altitude it doesn't actually get very hot. It was a pleasant 60 degrees and partly sunny for most of our trip which was perfect for running!

My Pre-race Interview: Lo importante es disfrutar de la competencia

 The race took place in small village, San Pablo del Lago, Zuleta which is about 2 hours outside of Quito. The village was right on a lake with mountains surrounding it on either side. It was beautiful! The race course had a lot of vertical, stating went with a huge climb up a mountain that was so tall the top was in the clouds!

The race started at 4:00am, which meant a 2:15 wake up call. I have never been up running that early, let alone racing, so it was a totally new experience. I was surprised at how good I felt. I was awake and ready to go. The start of the race was exciting! There was music blaring and a huge screen showing footage of other TNF races around the world. As the countdown approached zero, fireworks were shot out of the start gate and the race began! It was definitely exciting!

Helen, Jordan, and I pre-race

Race Morning

Running in the dark early on

Running in the dark is tough. The race organizers did a good job of trying to mark the trail, but at 4:00am it is so dark that its tough to see. I ended up getting lost about 10 times during the race. Not just ran off trail a little way, but full on run a mile in the wrong direction or spend 10 minutes searching for the trail. It was a frustrating to keep losing my way, but almost everyone had the same experience. Helen was ahead of me for the first couple hours and then found each other both lost in the same spot. I'd have to say I was really relieved to find Helen and have a friendly face to be lost with! We spent the next 3-4 hours running together trying to navigate the trail. We also ran with Jordan for awhile. He was suffering some pretty bad stomach issues and decided to just run easy with us. Despite getting lost and having so many issues, it was really nice to all run together. It was one of my favorite parts of the race :)

Helen and I running together about halfway through the race

Around 55k I started to feel amazing! This was totally different from my last, and only other 50 mile race (Lake Sonoma) I've run. I started to pick up my pace and was able to run pretty fast. I pushed hard for the next 20k and past about 15-20 men. It felt great to be passing people rather than just trying to make it to the finish line!

Focused

Add caption

Then it happened again. I got lost. Really lost. I was about 10k from the finish and running with a group about 10 other runners when we came to a 3-way intersection. There were no markings and none of us were sure where to go. It was especially challenging for me since I don't know any spanish! While the other runners stood discussing where to go, I just stood there helplessly since I don't know any Spanish! There were several villagers out watching the race that started pointing down one of the trails. Through hand gestures and body language I understood that the villagers were pointing the direction we were supposed to run. I asked one of the runners who spoke a little English 'if he was sure this was right', because I really didn't want to go the wrong way. He shrugged and said 'I think so'. That was good enough for me. I felt so helpless because I didn't know where to go and I couldn't understand anything that anyone was saying! We kept running and soon after saw yellow arrows indicating we were on course, or so we thought. We kept running following the trail which did lead us to the finish line. I crossed the line as the first female and was all smiles. I was so happy with my race despite getting lost and having such a difficult time early on.

Crossing the finish line in first, or so I thought :)

Happy Finishers!

I had no idea that I had missed part of the course, otherwise I would have gone back and re-run it. I was pretty far ahead and think I would have still had time to run the part I missed. I ended up getting a 3-hour time penalty for going off course. I was pretty disappointed when I found out because I don't think I missed that much. The time penalty put me back in 3rd (I think- I'm still not sure I ever found official results). Since everyone got so lost the results were pretty much invalid. It was more just a battle to find the finish! I was really happy with my effort and despite the result still very happy with the day. It really was an adventure…..we crossed fields, farms, ran through villages, next to pigs, cows, and chickens, got followed by stray dogs, crawled through barbed wire, ran down a rocky dried up creek bed for about a mile, and got to see some of the most beautiful countryside in the world!

TNF Athletes

Never stop Exploring……