Monday, July 12, 2010

Badwater 135M

Follow the action from Death Valley here.

Matt Aro from Duluth is the sole MN representative. Other runners people here will be familiar with include Adrian Belitu who came up from Chicago to run Zumbro back in April. And another veteran Zach Gingerich, aiming to improve on last year's 3rd place finish, was here in MN last month to run (and win) FANS 24hr.

No WI runners but KG is pacing Iso Yucra.

Last years winner Marco Farinazzo from Brazil is back again and also vying for the top spot will be Jorge Pacheco.

In the women's race Jamie Donalson is the favorite after her phenomenal run last year and continued success on the trails and road, particularly in timed events. Connie Gardner from Ohio is up there with her so far.

Times for a few people below. I think the first five are/were the top five runners at that checkpoint...

Stovepipe Wells 41.9M

Jorge 5:29
Marco 5:43
Zach 6:00
Jamie 6:47
Connie 6:49
Adrian 8:22
Iso 10:26

Furnace Creek 17.4M

Matt 3:14 - I wonder if he is still on the course as he started at 8AM (I think all of above except Iso started at 10AM)

Day 2 Updates...

As the runners continued through the night there were quite a few changes in position. I had missed one of the leaders in the above list - Lopez Oswaldo; And I should never have doubted Matt Aro... he is out there alright. Lots of cool photos on the webcast page. This batch by Chris Kostman include a few of Matt.


Last year's winning time was 23:39; CR is 22:52 (Valmir Nunes, 2007). Women's CR is 26:51:33 (Jamie Donaldson, 2008)

Lone Pine 122.3M

1. Zach 21:38
2. Oswaldo 22:11

Darwin 90.1M

3. Marco 15:28
4. Jorge 16:36*
5. Jamie 16:41
9. Connie 19:25
12. Pam Reed 20:04

* Jorge had been almost an hour ahead at Panamint Springs 72.3M - the biggest lead all day

Panamint Springs 72.3M

34. Adrian 18:04
38. Matt 19:07
42. Iso 19:54


Zero to Sixty (Two)

Today is 3 weeks from surgery and I can take the boot off. Which is somewhat irrelevant since I stopped wearing it last Wednesday. It just felt like I was walking better without it. Apart from a few spin classes and swimming, I continued to stay off my feet as much as possible all of last week and iced the ankle at night. There is still some swelling around the incision but it has healed nicely.

I ran 10 minutes yesterday evening. The foot felt fine. Everything else felt awful. Then I went to my first Hot Yoga class in over 3 weeks. I expected that to be pretty rough but actually it felt good and there was only one or two poses that I had to modify slightly. And that had more to do with being out of shape than any issue with my foot.

All in all, I can’t complain about progress to date. SHT Beta V weekend is coming up so I would like to be able to run a little but if not I am happy to hike. It’s the Superior Hiking Trail after all. And there is no point in pushing it now. Although, there is a small matter of a 100K race in 6 weeks time…

I would really love to be able to run Where's Waldo 100K (Oregon) as Kami and I are both signed up for it and looking forward to hanging out with our friend Carrie who moved to Portland last year. But I will only race it if I am in good shape for it. I will definitely travel out there and get some good training in if I don’t race, and could always pace Kami if she was up for that. Leading up to that I am excited to be heading out to the Marin Headlands area again to pace Alicia (Hudelson) at Headlands 100M August 7.

The longer-term goal is to have another good run at Hellgate 100K later this year so that is really what I am focused on. It will be exciting to run that race having some experience on the course. I will still be scared shitless in the lead up to it worrying about the midnight start and the weather conditions. But I feel like I can really target my training for the course especially having decided to take a few other races off my calendar.

I love that I am so confident of my training ability after one easy week that followed two weeks of doing N O T H I N G but eat, drink wine and watch TV.

A sporting weekend...

World Cup final - despite it being a crappy game I was happy that Spain won as they played the better football over the course of the tournament.

Tour de France continues into the mountains - I am enjoying following Nicholas Roche, son of former Irish cycling star Stephen Roche.

Hardrock 100M - how about Diana Finkel’s amazing run! She is an absolute rockstar on that course.

Dances with Dirt, Devil’s Lake - Congrats to Kami on her 50 mile win! And to Kim & Andy Holak who both won in the 50K race. Way to represent MN folks!

Half Voyageur - I have never run this race but it somehow seems a lot more challenging than simply half the full - I hear there was a swamp involved this year? Also, I was surprised to see Lundo show up in Eve's pictures - I hope it was a recon run ahead of the full as we all really, really want to see him run that. I suspect it is only a matter of time until Steve starts a poll on his finish time. No pressure Chris!