Trail Running Reports
Monday, February 28, 2005
Sheri break 5:20 in the mile at Indoor Nationals
Sheri was the 10th fastest qualifier and finshed in 5th place! She had a great race. Her previous best leading up to this meet (this winter) was 5:38, so she really busted out. Sheri's fastest time in the mile ever is a 5:04 and she has run a 4:41 1500 (5:01 equivalent mile), but this is still pretty fast for a 40+ female. I highly recommend anyone who hasn't run the mile before to go give this a try. Four laps around the track. This will give you some appreciation for how fast this is.
Our 7-year-old Derek is the fastest kid in his grade at his school. I was talking to the parents of the 2nd fastest kid at a basketball game a couple of weeks ago. When I told them that Derek's mom ran at the Olympic Trials last year, they felt a bit better, saying, "Well, no wonder he is so fast!"
Results
Women 1 Mile Run Masters
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Name Year Team Finals
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Finals
1 Karen Steen Club Northwest 5:08.12
2 Mary Thane Mountain West TC 5:08.41
3 Sarah Kramer Unattached 5:09.03
4 Kathryn Martin Northport RC 5:18.78
5 Sheri Wright Running Republic 5:19.45
6 Lorraine Jasper SoCal TC 5:19.77
7 Terri Cassel Fleet Feet Tulsa 5:20.83
8 Catherine Stone-Borkowsk Unattached 5:21.81
9 Carla Hervert Oregon TC Masters 5:22.45
10 Marge Bellisle Unattached 5:24.87
Bill
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Green Mountain
Ran up Green Mountain from Gregory Canyon Trailhead. Took me just under 50 minutes for the ascent (slow!). The trail was covered in 1-2" of snow and quite icy underneath. I chased and caught Mark Oveson just below the summit. Warren was waiting on the summit and then we caught Jeff McCoy about 8 minutes later. We ran into Homie descending Gregory Canyon. Roundtrip was around 1h40m.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Brook Loop TT
Six of us ran the Brook Loop this morning. I pulled in a bit before 6:45 a.m. and Stefan was already there. So was Will. A minute later Jon Sargent drives in. I was surprised that Homie wasn't there. I thought he was going to be our rabbit. I put some extra screws into my soles so that I could fly on the downhill. A minute or two later, in runs Kreighton and John Ortega. They start from the South Boulder Creek Trail so that they'd have a chance to warm up and get in some more miles.
At 6:50 a.m. we started the watches and blasted off. Kreighton went out so fast, I thought for a moment he was Chris Parks. He probably ran the first ten minutes of this course faster than Mackey or Galen Burrell. It was insane. I hit the Towhee Trail in 49 seconds (anything under a minute is fast) and was now in 5th place, with only Stefan behind me and he specifically said that he was going to take it easy on the ascent.
Kreighton kept getting further and further ahead. Jon Sargent was next, but a huge gap between these two. Then John Ortega, then Will, me, and Stefan, all separated by nice gaps. I crossed the creek at 4 minutes flat - way fast. At the next trail junction I was at 7:40 - anything under 8:15 is sub-40 pace. This was going to hurt.
I passed Will before the junction, but it took another ten minutes to open up a comfortable gap. I hit the service road in 13:55 - 13:35 is PR pace. Kreighton hit this road in 12:35! I closed on Jon Ortega on the service road, but couldn't pass him and he then opened up a 3-4 second gap on me. I passed him for good at the mouth of Shadow Canyon when he stopped for a moment to let his dog drink.
I pushed hard, but wouldn't see Jon or Kreighton until nearly the end. I tried to keep the effort up going down the Big Bluestem Trail, but I was hurting badly. I turned onto this trail at 28 minutes and knew I'd break 40 minutes. If I could keep up the suffering I might even break 39...
Soon after I hit the Mesa Trail for the final five minutes of pain, I could see Jon up ahead. I estimated he had a 90 second lead on me. He'd be very close to the FKT (fastest known time), which I held at 37:30. I was Kreighton would crush it when I saw Kreighton behind Jon for the first time. Kreighton had about a minute on me.
As I sprinted the final section from the wood bridge to the finish, in a desperate effort to break 39, Jon and Kreighton cheered me on like I was going to win the Boston Marathon. This wouldn't have been so hilarious except for the two ladies just starting out walking their dogs. Nevertheless, I loved the encouragement and gave it my all, finishing in my fastest time in over a year. What a run that was! Fun. Painful! Great stuff.
Full results:
1. Jon Sargent 37:24 - NEW FKT!!!!
2. Kreighton Beiger 37:53 - PR!
3. Bill Wright 38:50 - fastest time in over a year
4. Will 40:35 - PR! (first time he ran it...)
5. Stefan Griebel 41:02 - PR! (second time he ran it)
Jon Ortega didn't finish the course and ran back to the South Boulder Trail. If he had finished it, he'd have been somewhere around 40-42. Will has run a 15:30 5K back in his high school days, so he has serious speed. He's also run multiple 100 miles races, so he can go forever as well. Jon says he can take this under 36 in better conditions. Awesome.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
South Mesa to Mallory Cave
Homie and I pulled into the parking lot together at 6:30 a.m. on the dot. I noticed Jeff's red Honda in the parking lot and knew he arrived early to get a lead on us. We waited in the warmth of our cars until 6:35, expecting Mark to show up at any moment, and then got out of the cars. Homie pointed out the running clock on Jeff's dashboard. He did this after I told him that Magoo used to leave his watch running on his dash so that I'd know how far I was behind him when I started. Except that something was wrong with this clock. At first I thought is said 6:44, giving Jeff a lead of almost seven minutes. But upon looking closer, the numbers weren't lining up. It said 64:44 (and counting). What the heck was that? It wasn't a time. Did Jeff screw up when he started the clock? It looked like he had a 64-minute lead! Finally, it dawned on me that it was exactly that. I had said this run would take about 2-hours and Jeff had responded, facetiously I thought, that it would take him 3.5 hours. I guess he was serious about that. This means he started at 5:30 a.m. promptly! Dang. That dude is serious.
Homie and I ran easily up the Mesa and then the Big Bluestem back to the Mesa. We chatted about politics with Homie going on an eloquent rant about how prostitution not should be illegal, but encouraged among our own welfare recipients. It was a bit radical, but he's so persausive. I turned the conversation to adventures, particularly my idea, prompted by Homie's posting of the record, to break the Zoroaster record in the Grand Canyon. I think we can do it under 20 hours for sure and hopefully under 18 hours. The current record is 22 hours.
I continued to the Mallory Cave junction after Homie stopped and took a minute to rest and get a good song on my iPod. While I did this, Jeff came running down the trail. I said hi and figured I'd be starting to chase him from 20 minutes back. I ran up to the Mallory Cave sign in 10:58. The record is 8:52 (Jon Sargent), so this wasn't fast, despite working pretty hard. I came back down in about 7 minutes. I didn't want to push too hard because I want to go hard on Friday, but I still figured I'd catch Jeff. I didn't. I finished about a minute behind him. My roundtrip took 1h43m. I came back from the Mallory Cave junction in 36 minutes. I ran the final section in 5:54. A fast pace is 5 minutes and my record for this final stretch is something like 4:35, so I wasn't pushing things.
The roundtrip was probably around 10 miles, 2000 vertical, being generous.
Bill
Monday, February 07, 2005
Bear Peak Loop
Mark Oveson suggested meeting for an early run this morning, but he got in late the night before from Vegas (and a very cool hike/run/climb up Bridge Mountain) and forgot about it. Thankfully for me, Homie was already there. We ran together up the trail to the Fern Canyon trailhead, getting there in 20 minutes. I then went ahead trying to run the entire Fern Canyon. I failed and had to walk about two minutes of the 19 total minutes. I continued power hiking hard up the ridge to the summit, reaching it in 57:30. It was a bit cold out (25 degrees) and I didn't want to stop moving, so I descended back the same way to meet Homie and then head back up to the summit.
We then descended carefully down the West Ridge trail, which is really rocky for the top 500 vertical feet. Once off the rocks, we ran down the rest of that trail to Bear Canyon, finding near perfect running conditions - even better than in the summer, when Bear Canyon is very rocky. The snow smoothed things out and we didn't see hardly any ice.
The roundtrip is probably 8+ miles, 3000 vertical feet, and we did it in 2h05m.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Tempo Brook Loop
I arrived at my favorite trailhead (South Mesa) at 6:45 a.m. to find Stefan prepping his shoes (inserting screws). I noticed Homie's truck, but he was already gone, playing the rabbit again. Just before we were to take off, in pulls Jon Sargent and his friend Will and his dog. We quickly give them directions and take off, hoping to have at least a minute on the fleet-footed Jon Sargent.
I led the way and worked pretty hard. Stefan was right behind me and we encountered no snow until dropping down into lower Shadow Canyon. Here the snow muffled things and I didn't hear anyone behind me. Could I have dropped Stefan? I glance over my shoulder and he's right behind, but apparently hardly breathing. When we hit the wider service road, I waved him on by, but declined.
We crossed the creek at 23:30 or so. Jon hadn't caught us yet, but he would have if he hadn't backtracked to help direct Will. Will still took the wrong trail and cut off some of the loop, but that's no big deal. Except that Jon never did catch us. Hence, he's hot to give this another shot in a week. He's eyeing the FKT of 37:30.
I kept pushing the pace on the rolling ground over to the Mesa Trail and really pushing things on the descent, confident in my screw-shoe traction. I opened a gap on Stefan and grew it until I got out of sight around a bend. I caught Will and Homie just after turning down the Big Bluestem Trail and I pushed hard to maintain my effort. I flew by these two and it motivated Will to give chase. I was hurting and figured he might pass me, but he fell off after awhile.
I hit the lower Mesa Trail and took a look over my shoulder. I could see Stefan maybe 40 seconds back. I didn't want him to catch me at this point and continued to suffer to the finish. I ran 40:38 which, under the conditions and this early in the season, I was pretty pleased with. Stefan finished in 41:28. The rest came in later at a less frantic pace and we chatted for quite awhile - making up for the lack of conversation on the run.
Bill
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
South Boulder Peak Free at Last!
The BPLA (Boulder Peak Liberation Army) convened at the appointed rendezvous point this morning a 0630 hours. All two of us, anyway. I was surprised to notice Homie's assault vehicle in the parking lot, but he wasn't around. Clearly he had gone off on the point to soften up the enemy. War n' Peace was there and he took off a minute before, as I made the final preparations for the assault. It was 22 degrees out and windy, but the skies were clear. Knowing Homie was alone up ahead, without back-up, I charged ahead, leaving War n' Peace to cover our rear flank. I figured we'd regroup for the final summit assault.
The first third of the operation we met little resistance and penetrated into enemy territory quickly. As soon as we dropped down in the Lower Shadow Canyon, things changed. We hadn't seen really any snow to this point, just lots of dirt, rock, and ice. Now the snow was everywhere. Though a thin trail was beaten down, it was still soft and unconsolidated. I pushed on, unaware how far Homie was ahead. On these mountain assaults he is an army of one. His winter exploits are Burrellic and, dare I say it, Briggsian. He had no idea of the size of the troops backing him up and yet he forged on alone.
Once I crossed the creek at the mouth of Shadow Canyon and turned up steeply, I detected only a single set of tracks. I had hoped for more support from the locals in beating down the snow rebels low on the mountain. I knew the final assault would be left to us, as it always is, but frequently others soften up the approach. Not so today. It was only Homie up there, battling away solo. I had to catch him quickly and lend my support.
About a third of the way up the canyon, I caught sight of Homie. He was holding his own against the insurgents, but now we were stronger. I watched his back for awhile and then went out on the point. Inspired by his effort, I waded deeper into the enemy, literally cutting a trough through them, plowing them aside. At the saddle, as expected, things got tougher. It was deep here and my feet and hands started to freeze a bit. My feet especially had been locked in the grip of the enemy every since turning up Shadow Canyon. Yet I continued. Every summit deserves to feel the warm embrace of freedom. Breaking finally through the trees and onto the final talus pile I knew what it must of felt like for the American Army arriving in Paris in 1944. The locals were jubilant with my arrival and I was allowed to take a momentary place on the very summit. The sun was now up, dawning a new day of freedom and liberty for all of South Boulder Peak, not just the lower reaches. I couldn't help myself, shedding a tear, as the locals chanted, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Homie cleaned up the rest of the resistance and we celebrated on the summit waiting for our rear guard to show. After 5-10 minutes I had to move. The warm glow of victory was fading to the reality of the cold. I was along way from our supply lines and now needed to fall back. We'd pick up War n' Peace on the way out, leaving no one behind. But we never found him, despite a thorough search. We figured, and this was later confirmed, that he decided to freelance over to liberate the Brook Loop. There are some saucy curves down that way and I suspect, once he knew Homie and I had things well in hand, that Warren couldn't resist their pull.
So, mission accomplished, once again. The BPLA will always be ready to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of mountains so that the tree of freedom can continue to flourish. This operation took about 2h10m for the roundtrip.
Delta Leader...out!
