Run the Rut this weekend

A true mountain race - photo credit: Myke Hemsmeyer

It's really happening... I'll be out in the Big Sky region this weekend and will actually be running the race. I say that because it still seems a bit surreal. It's 50k up a mountain, with a lot of terrain and hills and will be at a higher altitude. Did I train enough? Did I get enough climbs in? Will my legs and knees hold up? Why is it snowing there already!? I guess I'll find out on Saturday!

Those are always questions that enter my mind before a big race, but this one I'm especially worried about because of the amount of climbing that's involved. Based on my run at Blue Knob, I imagine I should be ok, but there will be a lot more challenges that start creeping into my mind and make me question whether or not this was a wise decision. But there is no time to worry, and just look forward to the adventure along with being able to spend some time with my college roommate!

Race Details

From +Big Sky Resort this Thursday morning

The race takes place at the Big Sky resort just outside of Bozeman, MT. The stage is set to kickoff with a vertical 1 mile race Friday (today), followed by the 50k and 12k on Saturday morning. I got a little worried today when I checked the weather and it said 34 *F and snowing! Snow... in September?!? But upon looking at the forecast, the weather should start in the low 30s but be in the 50s for the race with clear skies; perfect racing weather. Whew.

As for the actual course, the Montana Mikes and the Rut crew were out marking the course earlier this week. From what I've read, it will be challenging, but with great views and some good challenges. There will be a lot of single track, which I feel very comfortable with, and a fair amount of dirt trails. It's the scree and off trail I'm a bit new to, but I feel confident I'll be able to handle it.

Marking the course (courtesy of Instagram user @thrphoto)

The route features a challenging and steep summit, which features a via ferrata line to make the summit of Lone Peak. The climbs and elevation gain and drop will definitely cause a lot of pain on my legs and knees, but I think should be decent enough to let me walk away from the race still standing.

Elevation profile for the Rut 50K

I've been checking out twitter and other social medias to keep up with what's going on and see other pictures. The official tag for the race is #runtherut, so feel free to look yourself. The race looks fun and I'm excited for all it brings.

How to Watch the Race

There are a few avenues to keep track of the race if you feel so inclined. There is some twitter coverage via iRunFar.com that will be live tweeting the whole event. I suppose you could also just look for the tag #runtherut on twitter/instagram/fb. I'm not really sure how this works, but Ultrasports Live has some kind of coverage... just not sure if it's live, or afterwards they put something together, but that's here. I suppose check it out on Saturday?

My Expectations

As far as preparations go, there's not much more I can do with regard to physically preparing. I've gotten the runs in, and put in the time. To prepare for the weather, I'm definitely bringing some long sleeves and windbreaker. Haven't decided on what to wear on my head or if I'll need some gloves... I've got my shoes all broken in and will definitely bring some anti-chafe stuff (the stuff's a lifesaver). My food of choice will be some salt tabs (not really food I suppose) and Picky Bars as my main food source between aid stations. They seem to hold up pretty

I'm hoping to finish somewhere close to 7-8 hours. Because this race is part of some bigger series (called the Skyrunner World Series), it's attracting some big name talent. One of which is deemed one of the best trail runners in the world, Kilian Jornet. Expect me to finish a little bit after him (ha ha).

Outside the Race

After the race, the race organizers are supposed to be providing some fun activities as well. Including some Montana brewed beer, awards, and a mechanical bull (just in case you weren't beat up enough). Beyond the race, I'll get a chance to see my long time friend and former roommate, DZ! It's a friend of his wedding this weekend, which means DZ's family will be in town, so I'll get a chance to say hi to them and congratulations to his friend as well.

Looking forward to a great weekend and will post how it goes. Thanks for reading!

Preview of Rock 'N the Knob

Blue Knob Ski Resort

Prior to me embarking on the quest of my Rut 50K madness, I was signed up for a "lowly" 20 mile race called Rock N' the Knob. It's hailed as the highest trail race in Pennsylvania, with a lot of climbing. Unfortunately, that race will take place the same weekend as the Rut, so I will be unable to do both. Fret not, my legs still need a good beating before the Rut, and I figured the Rock N' the Knob course would be perfect training for the 20 miles training called for, so I headed out there this past weekend.

My legs needed some love

I had to drive a few hours outside of Pittsburgh, and noticed a lot of fog along the way. I figured by the time the sun came up, the fog would burn away and I'd have a beautiful run, I even brought my sunglasses. Since I was out in an unknown part of Pennsylvania doing a run that I had no prior knowledge of, I decided I should take my time and make sure I don't get lost and stay on course. I studied and downloaded the course description to my phone and carried that with me (on airplane mode to conserve energy) along with a map of the race course (life saver).

Course Map

The run started off great with a nice steep uphill portion (elevation map for reference) while on the roads. It started going downhill once I reached the top, both literally and figuratively. The directions say to turn onto Jack Rabbit Rd and then a left onto a singletrack that leads down Tower rd. I ran up and down Jack Rabbit and couldn't find the entrance to the single track. So I just added some miles and continued down the main road knowing I could pick up the trail later.

I finally got back on course and onto the trails and was able to stay on course for a majority of the time. For the most part, the trails looked like below, with lots of lush green on both sides, some fog overhead, and a semi-rocky singletrack with some overgrowth every now and then. One creature that caused a bit of annoyance through the runs were the spiders. They had their webs everywhere! For whatever reason, they would string a few lines (every now and then, and entire web) across the trail that were thick and sticky. I'm not sure what kind of spiders they were, but by the end, I could definitely grab a handful of webs off my face.

Typical view of the trail

Once I was on the trail, I only got lost every 30 minutes or so before I got back on track. It took me a while in some spots to find the trail because I was unclear about directions. I think part of the issue was me not knowing my heading so I couldn't tell which direction to hold the map. Note to self: bring a compass next time. At one point, I actually ran about 1 mile off course and ended up in a town, at which point I knew I was off course. As I was checking my map to see where I missed my turn, a local resident came up to me and started telling me about the strawberries growing out of his well, and how the snow plow blocked him in last winter but he had to intimidate the plower to keep his driveway clear (a few other stories too).... rural town PA I suppose? He just needed a friend.

The trail continued to be beautiful with the greenness, while adding some nice hilly and technical challenges at times. I think it would've been nice to see farther than 100 yards in front of me, but the fog added a bit of mystery to the run as well. It definitely seemed to get worse as the day went on, and I definitely didn't need my glasses. One downside to the fog was the water in the air... it completely drenched me. It's like being lightly misted for 6 hours except there is no sun that you need to cool off from, and instead, it dowses everything and mixes in the sweat... including my map and phone (both survived though).

As I was getting farther along the run, at about mile 16 or 17, I was cruising along the Homestead trail (referencing the course map above, it's the white arrows) before I ran into a bit of a hurdle. The description says

The trail goes from dark pins and a damp moss running surface, to a grassy lane, to a steeper (and tougher) single track at each end of the loop.

Grassy lane

Of the entire run, the "grassy lane" was the part I enjoyed the LEAST. I didn't realize that would entail running through so much overgrowth I couldn't see the trail. I contemplated going back and finding a way around, largely because I didn't know how long the "lane" was nor did I want to contend with my friends in the field (those would be the spiders, although I did wonder if raptors might be present). The above picture was what I was dealing with, and I pretty much guessed at where the trail was... I eventually found it on the other side and was glad to make it out alive, but unfortunately not unharmed. The scratches from the thorns weren't too bad... although, after about a day, it seemed the damage done was a bit more extensive (and itchy too).

Casualty of the run

24 hours later (sorry about all the upper thigh)

From there it was onto the steepest and most technical section of the trail. The hardest part was either going uphill on the rocks (which I decided to walk a lot of), or going downhill quickly on the edge of a ridge and needing to turn without falling off the side. I can see how a rock could cause a misplaced step and send a runner off the side.

At this point, I realized I was about 3 miles ahead of what the course should've been due to all my fun side adventures I decided to have. My watch had me at about 21 miles, and I still had about 3 to go. There was a chance to catch a route back to my car, or I could keep going and get to the peak of the mountain view trail which is a vista point.... well I wasn't going to come all this way and miss out on a pretty vista, right?

I love seeing the tops of trees

Totally forgot that the fog would severely limit my sight range. Oh well, now it gives me a reason to come back out and see what it looks like.

It was a fairly short trip back to the car and completed my 23.8 miles! I was glad to be done, and very hungry (I also kind of wanted a beer). I was worried I would mentally crash on a 2 hour drive home leading to a physical crash, so I opted to check into Blue Knob State Park and get a camping site for the evening (don't worry, I came prepared and brought my camping supplies). I promptly ate all that I had brought, and then passed right out! A good little adventure.

Here's a little cutout of the actual route that I ran and the heart rate, elevation, and pace graph. I really took my time, especially with the uphills, which I think will be key when I'm running up steeper hills/mountains at a higher elevation. Thanks for reading (or skimming)!

Lines that are not continuous to a flowing trail are typically where I was lost and off course

All over the place

The Start Of Something Awesome

I'm back! It's been awhile, but have decided to try blogging about one specific thing right now (especially since I usually wrote about really random things), and because this one thing is so stupid and crazy... I had to write about it somewhere.

So a bit of backstory. Back in April, I was reading a magazine called Trail Runner and came across a race called "The Rut." It's a true mountain race where you run up a mountain- simple, right? To make it more enticing, it was in the short long-distance category of 50k (31 miles), easy, right? Everything about it sounded awesome and epic (crazy is implied), so I went to the website for it, immediately, to see when the event is held and if I could sign up for it.

Run The Rut 50K: Big Sky, Montana from eli weiner on Vimeo.


It's in Montana and in September which would allow for ample time to train and find a flight to the race! When I went to register, I found out they were sold out, 500 runners only. Luckily, they had a wait list. My logic was as follows, "No one ever gets in off wait lists. I sign up now on the wait list, and I'll plan for the race next year." The plan was executed, and I promptly forgot about the race thinking I'd be signing up in the fall.

Fast forward now to August. I now live in Pittsburgh, and after a brief hiatus from running due to some funkiness in my knee, I decided to start checking out some local parks and trails. I was feeling good and found a local trail runners group and got an itch to enter some races... then I get an email, "You made it into the Rut 50K! Immediate Reply Needed." I had 48 hours to come up with a decision. Keep in mind, this was August 6th and the race is September 13th, a little over 6 weeks away.

I panicked a little, called my brother, paced around my office, got really excited then nervous then I responded and said sign me up! So with that, I'm headed out to race up and down a mountain, at high elevation, over the course of 31 miles, and the race is hurtling toward me in less than 30 days! You know what they say, go big or go home...

Crazy? Probably. Stupid? I think most people would agree. Awesome? That's why I signed up!

I'll keep you posted with how training and the race goes! I've already knocked out some good workouts, but many more to come.

Great Sequoia National Park

A few weeks back (Memorial Day weekend to be exact) I took a trip out to San Jose, CA to visit my little brother. The voyage was to not only see what his life has been like at school (Santa Clara University), but to also take a trek off to some of the great California parks... namely Great Sequoia National Park.


The trip started with the most idle-rific/dawdle-ful departure ever...and for the trip planning was kept to a minimum (including, but not limited to, forgetting utensils and containers to drink from). So off my brothers' friends and I went... We made it to the park late at night and witnessed the grandeur of the park through headlights and extremely winding roads. We showed up at our campsite to find that it was covered in snow!


Remember me saying, "...planning kept to a minimum." I really had no clothes or shoes that would keep me too warm past 40 *F. Unfortunately it was about 25 out, and I was very ill prepared.... and I will likely not be making a similar mistake again in the future.


Our first full day there, we were able to get a hike in and see another part of the world (or so it seemed). We hiked through Kings Canyon National Park and went to see Misty Falls. Lots of rocks and interesting formations.

King's Canyon

Some more pictures of the hike

A bit of the canyon. Picture taken with Canon AE-1 (see previous post regarding issues with that camera).

That evening I got the opportunity to test out and sleep in an awesome hammock that Kate got me for my birthday. Now you may have asked yourself where I slept the night before. Well remember when I had said planning was kept to a minimum? The night before, I had attempted sleeping in the hammock , but got snowed on and consequently joined my brother and his 3 friends to make a 3-4 person tent extra cozy with a 5th person.

The hammock with my sleeping bag

During my brief attempt at the hammock the night before, I learned that I was going to need a rain fly for overhead protection, and an air mattress to try and keep my butt from freezing.

View from inside the bag with a makeshift rainfly

 Even with a cozy sleeping bag and air mattress, it was still quite chilly.

More gadgetry of mine - Note temperature was cooler than the watch shows

The picture of the watch obviously shows the altitude and temperature. But to get the temperature, I set the watch on the ground and it read 26, but by the time I had it on my wrist and then thought to grab my camera, my wrist had heated up the watch temperature gauge a bit.


The next day, our group visited Sequoia NP and got to see some awesome trees. The trees are really quite fascinating:

• they require fires to reproduce
  
• when a sequoia dies, it allows more sunlight through the canopy thus allowing younger trees to grow
  
• the roots of a sequoia aren't very deep, so they blow over easily
  
• the bark of sequoias are a natural flame retardant
  

Base of a giant sequoia

And I got a chance to be right next to one

Size comparison

 We also got a chance to see some bears up pretty close!

Really awesome creatures, worthy of some respect too.

So that was most of the trip. A lot of fun. I also got to hang out with Cisco and see his campus and play super smash bros, which was also great.


With that, I leave you with some more pictures.

View of some valley in California

Picture of lake in California - similar picture taken by me with filmed camera in other post

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*The pictures with the nice shots were taken by my little brother and his camera. The three of the hammock and watch are from my phone, while the B&W unclear shot is from the Canon SLR.

Big Bend National Park

I realized that I never got a chance to post about my trip to Big Bend National Park! I went back in February with Kate and some of our friends and we had a great adventure!


Kate and I flew into El Paso and then road tripped out to Big Bend. Who knew that it would've been almost the same commute if we drove to Big Bend (BBNP) as flying. Driving is about 10 hours, while flying there takes about 2.5 hours plus a 5 hour drive... and that doesn't include the 2 hour pre-flight shenanigans and all that.

Well on our way out there, we got a chance to see some really cool things along the way. First off, we met up with one of our friends in El Paso so that it was a 3-person road trip. Then we drove into the night to stay at Fort Davis. There we met a very odd yet cool man that was in charge of the campgrounds we stayed at. He encouraged us to go see the Marfa Lights despite it being a 30-45 minute drive and it being 11:30 at night.

Past Weekend Shenanigans

Well this past weekend I had some visitors in town... Lucy and her boyfriend, Clay!

It was great... we got to hang out and watch some Walking Dead (an amazing show...fyi). That's all we did!


Just kidding...

I wanted them to get the full Houston, Texas experience; with the help of Kate, we were able to come up with a plan for my outta-towner's visit to the greatest country in the US. We got to do some shenanigans. So here are a few of them!

SKYZONE
Skyzone.. a place full of trampolines that lets you jump away. Pretty sweet as we were the only ones there, largely due to the fact that we showed up a little before they opened up. Lucy showed us how to do some tricks, and did some herself. Note how empty it is... we really were the only ones there. If you decide to go, may I offer a warning. Just because you're jumping on something bouncy and springy does mean that you won't get sweaty and tired.

Food

We got a chance to sample the different flavors of Texas. We had some BBQ (see photos below). We also got to eat at Ninfa's for some tasty Mexican food along with Landry's Seafood! So a good sampling of food. We also ate a lot of eggs. Not that they are more special here in Texas, I just thought that eggs are SO great and tasty that I would mention them... and they probably are better in Texas... isn't everything better in Texas?

The Galleria

We ran on over to the world famous* Houston Galleria (*may not be world famous). Got some shopping done, complete with trying out the Microsoft Store and seeing how good our Jedi Mind Powers are with an game console. Also, by shopping, I mean the Microsoft Store and the Lego store were the only two stores we stepped foot in... and it was to check out the price of the Executor Star Destroyer from Star Wars ($400!) and then try out the Xbox 360 Star Wars game... go figure.

The Force is strong with this one

We checked out the Williams Tower and it's little waterfall that it's got around it. Side note: I decided to climb up to be right next to the waterfall, and there was a man there that saw me and said to me, "That looks fun, when I was your age, I would've walked all around [the waterfall]." I think he was challenging me, but I declined.

Zoo

We also had an opportunity to visit the Houston Zoo. Apparently it's great here in Houston? I had no idea. Even after visiting the zoo, I still feel unsure about the zoo but try and relax since the animals are treated fairly. That part aside, the animals were very interesting to look at. Did you know that monitor lizards (monitors = that lizard from "The Rescuers Down Under" and Komodo Dragons) have the same muscle for breathing as for their legs? That means if they want to sprint, they have to hold their breath. Fascinating right?

The rest of the weekend consisted of going to Kemah to check their fantastic boardwalk and seagulls after my triathlon. We also got to head down to Galveston to show my friends what our beach looks like. Luckily there was no getting in the water so they never noticed how much they couldn't see in the water. But it was an ocean nonetheless.. well Gulf to be exact (thus the Gulf of Mexico).

And that was the weekend! Thanks for reading

Weekend Recap

So this past weekend I headed out to San Diego for a little reunion with my old team... the Notre Dame Rowing Club. It was a little bit like time travel where we've gotten a bit older/grown-up, but are still pretty much the same as we were in college. There's a whole slew of fun that we had that makes for good stories to tell, but with my story telling ability would take a few hours to tell and a very confusing plot with no real climax or point.... so I'll refrain from story telling.

A little recap with how the collegiate varsity 8 did. This was the big race of the day (for ND at least). Prior to this year, the best finish Notre Dame has had was 3rd place, which was last year. This year, the team has had even more training and a lot more fine-tuned workouts and testing (lactate threshold testing, for example) to become much faster than years before.

Lactate Threshold Testing - something similar, but a little different... get the idea?

The race started with a slow start by Notre Dame, but were keeping up with the field and their top challenger, Grand Valley State (GVSU). About 300 meters into the race (out of 2000 meters), there was some equipment failure (kinda like a wardrobe malfunction but different... something happened to the oarlock and clam (for those interested)) causing Notre Dame to lose their momentum and be down in the race by an entire boat length (which is a lot to make up). Towards the final stretch, Notre Dame was giving it all they've got (said like Scotty from Star Trek). It was pretty exciting watching from shore because we were yelling with excitement while chasing the boats along to the finish. Unfortunately there wasn't enough juice in the guys' legs and couldn't hold off GVSU's sprint... ND ended up getting 2nd by a few seconds.... sometimes the most heartbreaking kinda loss. They'll be back to prove themselves the remainder of the year, though, so don't worry.

I too got a chance to race with my old teammates. We weren't nearly as fast as the Varsity boat, nor (as it turned out) were we as fast as the rest of our heat. We could've used some more practice, but I think in the end we got a nice chance to race and then relax and enjoy the remainder of the weekend.

This is a picture of the Alumni A boat as they are heading out to their race. Something humorous about this beach is that it gets deceptively deep very fast. A few times, the bow seat (front of the boat) would jump out to stop the boat, but would promptly disappear.

Launching the boat from the shore

These are some of the blades that we have as a team. They look pretty stellar.

Below is the shell that we raced in. It's got a great name... Steak Dinner.

Speaking of food... there was also lots of eating and catching up. I forgot what it's like to be around other people that can eat the same amount and much more than I can... that ask for other people's food, and know you have to eat as quickly as possible so your stomach doesn't tell your head that it's full (although it does lead to trouble later).

We got a great view of the ocean from our hotel (which I forgot to grab some pictures of). But we did get to hang out in a hot tub and just chill and probably reach the hot tub's people capacity (which we deemed man soup since there were mostly men there (and some significant others who are females (4)).

All in all a pretty awesome trip. Left me sunburnt and extremely exhausted. Gotta keep up the training for my tri at the end of the month though!

Loning the Lone Star Trail

Halloween this year turned out to be a blast! It was on the same day it normally is every year, except it just took me awhile to get around to posting about it. I decided to go backpacking along the Lone Star Trail in Sam Houston National Forest! I finally got to test out my shiny new equipment (not actually shiny, just new-ish). 

This was my first solo backpacking adventure, so I wanted to make sure I didn't mess anything up or get lost or anything like that. I followed protocol on informing people where I'd be and when, and called the ranger office to get tips and advice (thank you Shelly). Good thing I did that too; it was hunting season, so I had to deck out in all orange.

I got all my gear packed up and water filled and rolled out early Saturday morning. I wasn't too sure what I'd be running into, but I tried to pick a lofty goal for mileage and hopefully in a good part. The goal: 13 miles along miles 45 and 58 of the LST (a little info here- the lone star trail is a 130 mile thru-hiking trail)

The trail was filled with lots of pine trees, aluminum tree tags to mark the way, and, best of all, silence. I forget how silent nature can be, and how beautiful it is. Despite not having a nice lake, valley, hills, mountain, water formation, or rock formation to look forward to having the opportunity to hike and be with the earth in its natural noise was perfect. There were the occasional squirrels romping and deers be frightened, and at night, it was silence mixed with a symphony of coyote calls on both sides of my camp.

It turns out after a day of hiking with a semi-heavy load (~30 lbs.), your body may get a little sore the next day. Getting started made me feel like an old man, but once my body got used to the weight again, I was off to head back to my car.

On the return trip, during the road hiking portions of the trail, I ran into a few other people driving and asking me if I was lost. I had to inform them that I was actually on a trail, but it just looks like a road to other people.

I made it back in one piece, and only wetted my appetite for my next outdoor adventure!

check out my Web Albums for more pictures

The Italian Dance

For Thanksgiving, my family took a trip to Rome, Italy! It was an awesome trip, and you should stay tuned for an entry on the trip with some pictures. Italy is a bit different than the US (although, I would imagine most countries are). I took a cab from the airport to meet up with my parents and brothers (sister had to work :( ). Driving out of the airport, no big deal, just realizing that lane lines are just suggestions and not rules, along with the speed limit.

In Rome, the roads can get pretty narrow, and parking can be, well... wherever there's space. I wish I had some pictures of the spots cars would get through and makeshift parking spots on the side of building. The drivers may appear reckless at first as they zoom past a poorly parked car with pedestrians hugging the walls as the car passes, but rest assured, the Italians have some skills driving. They certainly know the boundaries of their cars... something I would venture to say that a lot of people from the States are not so good at.

Along with knowing their boundaries, they adjust very well to changing conditions. Say for instance a person tries walking out into the street. The car has a few options. The car can A) run over the human, B) brake for the human, C) swerve around the human. Usually it'll be B, which is nice for the walkers because you can just walk in front of a car and not worry about A, but sometimes it's C. If the car brakes or swerves though (and it's not really a swerve, just a quick move around the person), the other cars have to react (if the person gets run over, everyone can carry on (except the late pedestrian of course)). Italians are very good at this. If one car shifts to the left, the next car will do so to avoid a collision and perhaps move into oncoming traffic. At this point the cars on the other side will shift or brake to avoid a collision as well... and then everyone is a happy camper. I feel that those of us here in the States stay in our lane a little better, so if a car comes into a driver's lane, typically there won't be as much movement.

It's show a big difference with the culture and the way drivers drive. I think for the average American, seeing the roads there is a little different and takes a bit of adjustment, especially when walking in front of a car and seeing cars cut each other off with no hard feelings. Either way, in the end, I left feeling very comfortable when the taxi driver would go on a narrow road where a mistake could end in a lost side-mirror or a flattened foot.