Ridge p.r.

I just set a new pr to the top of pisgah ridge in 48:57. It was a bit of a surprise because I'm a little sore from Monday's run down Mt. Washington. I hit the ridge trail at 35 flat and did the climb in 13:57. My old pr was 49:02. I hit the ridge trail in 34 flat that day. This was probably my fastest time climbing ever. (I can't be sure that I didn't go faster racing some of my friends up this climb over the years...but I doubt it)
After hitting the top, I hung out for a while. I found ashes and a picture of someone's dog in a ziplock bag. It was a nice tribute and made me think of my old friends Pisgah and Elijah. There are some good spirits and energy out in that forest! I shut it down and cruised back home enjoying the beautiful day.

Mt. Washington

Yesterday Ferenc and I drove up to the Whites to run up Mt. Washington. The weather was perfect. We took the Edmands path up to the Crawford path. This was the toughest climbing of the day. Once we got on the Crawford path it was all ridge running above tree line. It was gorgeous up there. My biggest worry was rolling my ankle from not watching the trail. The views were spectacular! We reached the lake of the clouds hut after 1:13 of running. We stopped for a quick bathroom break then on to the summit of Washington. The trail got very rocky after the hut, but they were large slabs that gave excellent footing. We topped out after 1:38:12 of running. It was my first time on the mountain and at the summit. There was no wind at all and it felt hot. We hung out on top for a while then headed down. It was really fun running down. It took total concentration. We hit the Edmands path and really ran fast in spots. We got down in 1:14:47 for a total time of 2:53:00. What an awesome day! I'm envious that JJ and Tilton live so close. I would love ro come back and spend more time out there. I want to do a Presi traverse soon.

35

Well yesterday I turned 35. I remember when I turned 30, I told myself that I would back off with the running at 35. I'd stop racing so much, do less mileage, and not be so obsessed with pr's. I told myself I'd lift more, play more basketball, soccer, and volleyball. I'd maybe start doing karate, I always wanted a black belt.

Well, screw that! All that will have to wait another year (or 50!!). I'm having way too much fun. I have some lofty goals. I want to pr at 5k this Saturday. I want to break Ferenc's course record at the Pisgah 23k. I want to go sub 2:30 at the Demar Marathon. I'd also like to break the world record in the 4x800 indoors for 35-39 year olds. My running has been going great and I'm handling the higher mileage well. I'm looking forward to going for these goals and I'm having a blast getting out the door every day and running with my friends.

106

I got 106 miles for the week. Had 3 speed days and ended the week with a 22 miler. Tired but feeling satisfied.

3 am

Just got back from a nice 10 miler with Fyffe. He has to work major overtime today so we ran early. We left his house at 2:57 am by the light of his headlamp. Good thing his worked because my batteries were just about dead. We saw a few bats. Glad to know they're not extinct. We also saw an owl and some cool heat lightening. This is the earliest I've ever run. I'm looking forward to the track workout this afternoon. It seems far away!

ARE Trail Running Camp

Last week from July 11th-15th I was in the Adirondacks at Dippikill Wilderness Retreat for trail running camp. I had a blast. I worked as a counselor and lead group runs through the woods on beautiful trails. The campers were adults and almost entirely women. It made for a fun and interesting dynamic. I enjoyed seeing there enthusiasm for trail running and willingness to take risks and try something new as many of them were new to the sport. I also got to spend a lot of time running with Tim VanOrden, Josh Merlis, and Ray Webster, and hanging out with the other counsellors. The people I met and got to know better were fantastic and that was the best part of camp. Some other high lights included: Seeing a black bear on a run with the counsellors, seeing and hearing immature barred owls begging for food all night, tubing down the Hudson River, seeing a grey fox, seeing a couple bald eagles, seeing a snowshoe hare, doing karaoke, watching the talent show, and racing in the Froggy 5 miler.

The race was a big deal because all of the counsellors were involved in friendly smack talking and the campers were really excited to see who would get the victory. I became pretty nervous before the race and realized I really wanted to win this thing. I knew Ray and Josh were solid trail runners but I was especially worried about TiVo who's been racing really well and was the course record holder. I took the lead at the gun and was running fast around the first mile loop befote we headed into the woods for the real trail running. Josh, Ray and Tim were right on me. Ray sprinted into the lead as a joke to put on a show for his girlfriend. For a second I thought he was going to hold on. We passed Ray and headed down the dirt road hill at a high speed. We turned into the woods and the climbing and real technical trail running began. I was moving fast and trying to stay relaxed with Josh and Tim right on my tail. We started up the big climb up Dippikill Mtn and I was able to gap those guys by a little bit. On the descent Tim caught back up to me and Josh seemed to have cracked. I tried to run the downhills fast but relaxed to save my legs for the final mile which was all uphill. Tim stayed right on my back. My strategy worked as I was able to pull away on the final climb. I hit the line in 34:22 a new course record by 2 minutes. Tim was 20 seconds back and Josh hung tough just 7 seconds behind him. It felt great to win and I joked that it was the biggest race of my life because of all the pressure I put on myself to win to impress the campers.

My Blog Sucks

My blog sucks. I'm sick of writing it but I still enjoy reading others. I can't be the only one who feels this way as many of my friends and teammates have stopped keeping up with theirs. I'm even sick of comparing my training to other people's. We're all different. Who gives a shit if somebody I race does more mileage or more hills or more races. I used to go into races only knowing what I've done to prepare. Now I know what just about everyone around me has done.
I'll still keep a run log on paper which I've done since I started running. I might even occasionally post a race report or something here, but I'm not gonna even try to keep my run log on here.