Crewing Badwater 135 - July 2011

I am not sure if I will ever attempt to run this race. I have to say the $1000 entry fee for minimal support puts me right off. I don’t see the need for it. For sure, the event costs money to host, particularly the medical support. But a grand? And that’s before paying for your own support crew which for most people is a necessity in a race like this. Though you have to give huge credit to the few who actually do the race self-supported. This year a lady pushed a cart the whole way. With only a few towns along the course, she needed to push gallons of water as well as food and other gear.

Yosemite - July 2011

Yes, this post has been a long while coming!! But I did want to record this wonderful weekend where we did our first little bit of exploring in California. For most of 2011, I have been commuting weekly to Los Gatos (just south of San Jose) while Chris (and Cooper) remain in Minneapolis. It's been challenging at times but all of these new places to explore make it fun.

A couple of things...

The following are all in various forms of draft and some will actually get posted before the end of 2011!

• July - Badwater crewing - I would never have believed the desert could be that pretty. Even at 117 degrees.
• July - Wasatch Front Ultra Relay – myself and Chris opted for (created) the 2-person team.
• August - Leadville 100 - the magnificent beauty of the course made up for too much road.
• September to December – training with a coach. A cool new experience. With lots of long runs in the Marin Headlands. Beautiful!
• December – Hellgate 100k - I raced, really raced, for the first time in about 18 months. And it felt awesome.
• December – Tuscobia – we entered a new world of race directing. And we learned fast.
• 2011 recap
• 2012 race plans

Back where it all began...

After my first trail experience at the Afton 25k in the summer of 2005, I knew I wanted to do more of this. 3 days later I was emailing Larry and hence began my love affair with the Superior Hiking Trail. I came across the email exchange today while doing a search for a work project. I had to cringe at my asking Larry about water crossings! And his response about the "nice bridges" makes so much more sense now that I know him - I can just hear his brain thinking this will be good... I am looking forward to another visit up there next week. It will be my 7th annual! Chris is running the 100 again and I will volunteer Friday and then pace him for the second half. It is always an incredibly fun weekend and a great chance to catch up with everyone. I am sad not to have spent much time on the SHT this summer. It is definitely one of the major drawbacks to the California move. So we will just have to make the most of this big weekend up north. And perhaps one of these years I will actually run a race here again...

Black Hills 100K

I ran this race several weeks ago (June 26) and started the report almost immediately - but got a little side-tracked since. Which means there are a few more race reports to follow!

Black Hills 100K was a tough race for me. There's a simple enough reason for that - my training wasn't what it should be to really race the way I know I am capable of. But, now that some time has passed since the race and I've (sort of) accepted that training is down the list of priorities this year, you will be saved from the worst of my whining.

Coming soon...

Dear Blog,

I have not completely forgotten about you. I now have THREE race reports to finish (and 2 of them to start) as well as a few other random posts about the awesome summer so far!

- Black Hills 100K
- Yosemite Weekend
- Crewing at Badwater
- Wasatch Front Ultra Relay
- Voyageur 50M
- Freaking out about Leadville 100M

Chow. For now.

Running Down Under...

Earlier this year I took a new role with a recent acquisition, relocating to Los Gatos, California (just south of San Jose). It's been an interesting transition going from being part of a 50+ person department to a department of 1. And definitely challenging to work on a completely new (medical device) technology. But always interesting.

Chippewa Moraine 50K

This is a little late going to print and a little shorter than usual race reports... both due to a lack of the most valuable non-renewable resource.

4th year of the race. 4th time running it. 4th win? Ah, wouldn't that have been nice! But alas, I knew full well going into this race that for me to win would have required a bunch of women not to show up and/or some horrendous weather conditions that I had more experience dealing with. Though a snowstorm a la 2008 would not have worked since the winner is a Nordic skier...

Photo blog...

To avoid too much focus on those pesky race goals I thought I'd post a collection of photos from Christmas 2010 in Ireland through the recent trip to Colorado/California...

2011 Race Goals

Better late than never. And just in time for tomorrow's race! It’s a short list this year. Though I expect that may change – but we’ll see how things go with weekday hill training in CA and weekend technical trail training in MN...

• April – Chippewa 50K, WI – 4:50. No sandbagging, just no way I am going to be beating the past 2 years’ times (4:41 and 4:41); and in fact 5:00 may be closer to the mark.


• August – Leadville 100M, CO – 24:00.


• December – Hellgate 100K, VA – agghhhhhh – I really, really want to put something crazy like 12:59:59 here but I’m not going to! :)

I’m half thinking of another 100M in the fall – perhaps Pinhoiti (AL) in early November. But won’t make plans until after Leadville. Same goes for Wild Duluth 100K and/or Surf the Murph 50M, October (MN). If not racing, I hope to be at these races to volunteer.

2010 - The Year in Review

This will be a busy blogging week for me - I have to post this one (only a few months late), and then sneak in my goals for 2011 before the first race on Saturday! And I also need to post a ton of photos from the trip to Ireland...

Hello. My name is Helen.

Forgive me readers, it has been 3 months since my last post. In that time I have both lived life and been passionate. But I haven’t had a whole lot of time to blog about it. And the passion didn’t have a whole lot to do with running so probably better you didn’t hear from me. And if I am being fully honest about it I have been taking the easy option and just posting on Facebook. Sorry blogger.