Planning My Self Supported Ultra

This is fun! More fun than actually signing up for a race because when you plan your own you get to do all the course planning and timing. The route planning can be a lot of fun.

FACTS:

1) I travel at least once a month for work and the night times are long. So these times are the most probable time to hold a self supported ultra.

2) I can run as fast as 8 minute miles on roads. It goes slower from there depending on the steepness and technical difficulty of the trail. 

3) The amount of available sun increases until June 21st, the summer solstice, then the days get shorter. The highest the sun gets is 9:20 pm for Vancouver.

So taking these factors into account, I can run about 4 hours maybe 5 hours in complete sunlight. Even at dusk there is still a significant amount of sunlight. A 50K takes about 6 hours. A 50 mile takes almost double that.  I'm leaning towards 50K first

My Route:

The start is the backdoor of my hotel which is typically the Holiday Inn Express in Kelowna (elevation 1150’ or 350m). After a quick right and right again down some back streets into Mission Creek, ‘The Greenway’. The Greenway is flat and follows the creek for about 5 miles but I’m turning after about 2 ½ miles at Casorso Road taking a left. At the roundabout stay left and keep left. Casorso Road turns goes up steeply to Bedford Road. The elevation tapers off a bit but Bedford then turns into Stewart Road East. At the end of Stewart Road East is the parking lot for Myra-Bellevue Regional Park. The elevation at the parking lot is 1750’ or 533m.

Believe it or not the trail has recovered from this devastation

Inside the park my route follows the Scorched Sole 25K course from 2010. I say that very specifically because the Scorched Sole course changes almost annually either due in part to snow, fires or some other unforeseen circumstance. (True enough at this posting the Scorched Sole 2011 course has changed again) The 2010 course follows the Lost Lake Trail to the end where it picks up the Kettle Valley Railway trail. The Kettle Valley Railway or KVR was this old defunct railway built after the turn of the 20th century. It’s famous for these gigantic trestle bridges which spanned these beautiful canyons. Even today these trestles are considered quite a feat of engineering. In 2003, the Okanagan Mountain fire (hence the name Scorched Sole) many of these trestles mostly wood burned to the ground. It was only through the efforts of interest groups that these marvels were restored to their original splendor. (wow that sounds like it should be in a brochure).

The bottom line is I’m truly excited about this. It doesn’t impede on family business. Although there is no pomp and circumstance, I’m thinking there won’t be as much of the low that follows a grand event either. I’m already ruminating about a second and third ultra closer to home. The mojo is back!

Keeping the Right Company

Tip One: Keep the right company.

As an ongoing series I reference “Leadville for Scratch” by Dougald MacDonald with my own insight into the world of ultramarathoning.

In his article the author advises to keep the right company or to run with people of your own ability. Author’s motivation for the tip is motivation. It can be demoralizing to run with people who are leaving you in the dust constantly as stated in the article.

I haven’t had a running partner in 8 years or so. There are definitely days when I could have used some butt kickin’ motivation.

I remember one running partner I had. Steve lived next door; right next door how convenient is that. We both lived at home and he was training for Ironman Canada. His motivation was always a little more than mine so that was great. His pace was similar to mine albeit maybe he was a little bit faster. After Ironman he kind of stopped training for a little while and I eventually moved out. Good times while it lasted. I wonder what ever happened to Steve? Maybe I'll Facebook him? That was the one of the last training partners I had.

The last training partner I had was Mike. We were both training for our first marathons and we did our long runs together. I truly struggled with Mike because he was incredibly fast for a newbie. I think he place third in his age group or something like that in his first marathon. It was truly impressive. His time was 2:45 or something and mine was like 3:57. So you can imagine our training runs his easy pace was my marathon race pace. That was my lesson in demoralizing.

Since then my training partners have always been dogs. When you get up to run at 5 am its not easy to rally and takers on a 7 miler. Koda however is always willing to go. His tail starts wagging as soon as the Timex Ironman alarm goes off. It drives my wife nuts if I take more than a minute to roll out of bed because tails are whacking the walls and little Miniature Schnauzer is pawing the bed. I’m amused, my wife . . . not so much!

I think if I had the opportunity to run with a group or even a partner I don’t think I would. Taking my dog for runs is motivation enough and besides he always lets my set the pace.

Keep the Right Company. Yep! I got this one down.

Magazines are like treasure

I always keep my back issues of magazines. The cheap part of me won’t let go. Much like old running shoes who end up in the shoe closet after their useful life, magazines pile up in all the likely spots: the bathroom, the bedside table, under the coffee table, and the glove compartment of my minivan. I figure I paid as much as $8 for these conduits of information and although the information has passed from page to brain cell I just can’t discard and recycle. It drives my wife nuts as the stacks build up over time. Secretly I know she tries to recycle them while I’m not watching but luckily for me I take the recycling out the curb. Many a TrailRunner magazine has been save from the clutches of the big blue recycling truck.

On a recent shopping trip, shopping for my wife, I elected to sit in the car, I rediscovered an old TrailRunner with an article about running your first hundred miler, “Leadville from Scratch” by Dougald MacDonald. An excellent article with some great tips I’m going to explore before I run my ultra.

I liked the way that it had the subheadings and a short vignette into his own experiences. I think over the next couple of months I’m going to explore each point and give my own interpretation of the tip. To summarize without re-writing the article the tips were:

1) Keep the right company
2) Build a base
3) Focus on the long runs
4) Learn to walk
5) Eat right
6) Experiment with gear
7) Run at night
8) Train on the course
9) Use a crew and pacers
10) Take a break
11) Try, try again

The magazine has proven to be a good reference long after I first bought it two years ago. If only I could see eye to eye with my wife on these treasures of information.

Around the Lake Give R Take 30K

The road to ultra distance is not paved it’s not even road. My first trail race was almost two weeks ago. My goal has always been to run an ultra. I’ve done 5K’s, 10K’s, and marathons so I thought to myself the next logical step is the ultramarathon. Although I’ve never done a trail race of any distance I knew that jumping right into the ultra distance with only road experience would be pure folly. For the longest time I was debating whether or not to do the North Face Endurance 50 which was down in Seattle but I talked myself into a 30K as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

Around the Lake Give R Take 30 is a 30 kilometer trail race that circumnavigates Cultus Lake in Chilliwack. It is probably considered a small race with an entry limit of 150 including relay runners but of course what do I know my last marathon I ran with 5000 runners. In preparation for the race I ran my favorite loop which includes a steep section up to the monastery out in Heritage Park. All the while during training I thought to myself the trails in the race couldn’t be this steep. So I gained solace in knowing I was training on trails that were burlier than the actual trails of the race.

Cultus Lake is beautiful, nestled between the city limits of Chilliwack and Abbotsford in the shadow of Vedder Mountain. Cultus Lake is a small little community of older ornate houses and some newer design homes that should probably grace the cover of Architectural Digest. My race morning started like any other morning I picked up my number at registration, pinned it to my shirt and eyed the ‘competition’. Right then and there I was intimidated by the ‘ultra’ race shirts and the ‘sponsored’ runners. Pretty much everyone had on a race shirts worthy of their entrance into this race. And me with my plain navy blue adidas long sleeve with no sponsors or logos I felt outclassed.

I lined up mid pack and when the race started I settled into a slightly more than comfortable pace. The first mile or so is all flat of the local roads so as to thin out the crowds heading to the trail head. I came to the trail head with modest pack of runners. Our first true test was shortly after we hit the forest. It was a steep grade I would estimate 22% or more up Vedder Mountain. It went up and up. Some were shuffling; most were walking as we occasionally broke into a few strides from the few flat spots of relief. My knees got a good massaging from the amount pushing my hands did on them from the steepness of the grade. This must have been a few kilometer worth of up hill I remember from the topo that the top of the incline and the first aid station was at 6km.

I made the first aid station at 38:08. I filled my water bottle that I had pre-filled with one scoop of Gatorade and put it in my belt. I knew the race was going to have an electrolyte drink but I had never heard of it so I didn’t take chances and I brought my Gatorade. I was glad I did too because I grabbed a cup of what they were serving and it was awful. I drank about half and washed down the taste with water.

The next section was mostly downhill. On the uphill I was passed by several people mostly because it was unnerving to hear heavy breathing a few steps behind with no one in front of you. So I let them pass and became the heavy breather in the back. I was expecting this after the first five minutes of uphill because I knew my pace was too fast. But the downhill I thought I could pick up some speed. I mean how hard could it be. I was going a fairly good clip down a fire road, looking around me I saw no one. For a brief moment I thought I was lost because I didn’t see any trail markings. Then it was almost like I was standing still because three runners past me fast. They showed up out of no where and were soon no where to be seen.

The next aid station was at the beginning of the road section. I filled my water bottle and switched it out for Gatorade. The road section is a gradual downhill through the area they call Columbia Valley. Once again beautiful rural landscape I was actually a little relieved from the mental break the mundane road running provided me. No roots, ruts or stumps to worry about just the road. I was caught by yet another runner after the first turn, a local who had run the course before. I took as much beta as I could but the fast pace on the roads took there toll on her and she faded.

The aid station at the end of the road section was appropriately placed before another steep incline. This was the exchange point for the relay racers. I had completed the first ‘half’ in 1:27:53. I felt sorry for the people running the second leg as the grade was steep from the get go. This trail and for the rest of the race was steep but they were horse trails so they didn’t have the deep ruts grooved into them like the counterpart dirt bike trails on the first half. It was easier to shuffle your feet upward here. I was impressed by some runners who seemed to maintain their shuffle the entire ascent. I wondered if the mid packer could shuffle up the hills what were the lead runners doing.

I caught up to a couple of runners and ran with them for most of the rest of the race. The one girl had trained on this last section so was able to give me some good beta on the last section. The first hill after the exchange was steep but short the next hill was even tougher and longer. I pretty much walk/shuffled the entire hill because there were no flat sections. The last downhill was long. By this point in the race my calves were starting to get knots in them. My twenty-twenty hindsight tells me I didn’t drink enough. I was now on my third bottle of fluid and was about 2½ hours into it. I normally drink a bottle every 45 minutes so I was down about a bottle and I sure felt it.

The road came as welcome relief my quads were thrashed. I would guess that my finishing pace must have been 12 minute miles on completely flat roads. The last three kilometers followed the beach to the finish line. Normally I would think this is a scenic beautiful way to finish the race but all I could think was where the finish line was.

I finished the race in 3:08 which is a great time I think for a first trail race. The people at the finish were really friendly and the spread of food was phenomenal. I stuck around to see if I could pick up some draw prizes which were also really good. They gave out shoes, water bottles, massages, pedicures, and even a case of beer. All told this race gets two thumbs up and I will definitely be back next year.

My Trail

In running I would almost say there are no wrong turns it is all karma or Zen or destiny. As they say there is no good weather and bad weather it is just weather. On Wednesday morning my plan was to record my loop time for a newly plotted route on my local trail. Where I live there is a finite amount of trails within running distance. In fact I could probably name them all in one short list. The names have some significance and I'm not sure where they came from but you can tell from area why they came to be.

I live in Mission and as you can guess there is a mission or more correctly a monastery in the middle of town. It sits perched on the side of a hill or mountain, Mount Mary Ann. So in the shadow of this beautiful monastery is a small network of trails. The longest trails are probably only a mile end to end but they run in different directions so you can link them together.

My loop was found by accident. I start by the trailhead off Prentis Avenue across from the Four Square Church. From here you run along Salamander Trail. After about 500' you come to a small rise and a triple fork. The left is Jacob's Ladder which goes up to the monastery. The center is College which meanders up and joins Jacob's Ladder and come back down to join Salamander. And that leaves the right fork, the Salamander Trail which continues on to see where College joins again and then where another fork you'll see where they put a drain pipe to cross D'Herbomez Creek. But you stay left on the trail that parallels the boundary of the OMI aka St Mary's. Follow this to the very end and you'll end up at the end of Jasper Street but I take the very last turn left. How do I know it's the last turn? Experience or Zen or Karma.

Up the hill I go. This section is called Hail Mary. It's maybe a quarter to a half mile long but it is steep. You can’t run it. You can hike fast with your hands on your knees. I love this section.

Near the top if you are too focused on your turnover you'll miss the left turn which takes a final steep push to the Sanctuary. If you miss it you'll soon find yourself on the Gondola with some pretty steep slopes on your right and spectacular views of the valley below. The Gondola is not as steep as the left turn you missed but it was well worth it. It eventually switches back and you find yourself in the Sanctuary. This in the junction for five trails: Hail Mary, The Gondola, Blaspheme, The Monastery, and Jacob's Ladder. There are signs posted for which is which but vandals have removed the one for Gondola and Blaspheme. Total elevation gain is about 1000' at a 20% grade.

Going down Jacob's Ladder is less steep probably 5% at times 15% at others. Going down Jacob's Ladder is always less confusing then going up. Just remember to stay right if given the choice. The choice is possibly hooking up with Glen's Loop (twice) or College trail. Even if you do make a wrong turn they all join Salamander at some point so it's all good.

So after reading this did you figure out where I made a wrong turn? I've been running these trails for years and all my 'wrong turns' have been an evolution into the perfect trail route.

Like I said before there are no wrong turns it was meant to be!

Bears

Do you believe in signs? Omens? I have been a runner for over twenty years. In the previous nineteen I've seen lots of rabbits, the occasional fox, one skunk, and one bear. That bear was 15 years ago in what was then Seymour Demonstration Forest. So really I’ve had 15 years bear free.

This year alone I have come across three bears on three separate occasions. The first was in my home town. I was on a road run coming out of the local sports park, going up Nelson Street

which is fairly wooded a typical bear habitat in spite of the nearby houses. As I turned the corner there it was. It saw me and lumbered back to the woods. As I ran by the spot where he entered the woods I saw it sitting there watching me run by. Good bye bear!

The second sighting was on our family vacation in Whistler. I was on a meandering 8 miler on Valley Trail which encircles Whistler Village. As you get closer to the village the trail branches and forks into a network near Lost Lake. I stopped to get my directions straight and I looked up at this signpost. The Upper Village was a sharp right from where I stood so I turned in that direction. Right in front of me about 6 feet away was a black bear probably a couple of years old. If I didn't know better I would swear the bear was getting his bearings straight too (pun intended). I jumped back and said 'Ooh' and the bear jumped back too. And then for some reason I apologized like I was sorry I scared the bear. The bear shuffled off into the woods. He went one way and I went mine. Good bye bear!

The third sighting was the other week in Kelowna. I travel to the interior for my job once a month and seek new trails at the end of the business day. This visit I wasn’t feeling all that adventurous. I decided on the Mission Creek Regional Park. It’s a nice park but not too exciting because it follows the Mission Creek right through town and drains into Lake Okanagan. It’s flatter than a pancake but it is very pretty because on the running stream, the occasional berry bush and it has a fish ladder because they are trying to enhance the local fish population. Hmm, water, berries, and fish a perfect environment for raising bears.

On the Eastside of the creek the trail is more single track and actually weaves in and out and up and down knolls. I chose to runs the knolls. I glanced at the Bear Warning signs and continued on. It’s not that I’m stupid but I know from experience that once these signs go up they never come down even though the last bear sighting could have been years ago. So like many I become complacent in the warnings and tend to ignore them.

I passed a guy who was on a stroll with a mentally challenged adult. I said my hello’s and still continued on. About a quarter mile later I see something in the creek. My first thought was it was pretty cold to be swimming. Still I ran towards the shape that became more defined as I approached. We made eye contact and I stopped. We must have been about 200 feet apart but it was close enough to tell it was a full grown black bear. This bear didn’t look skittish, in fact he kind of looked pissed that I was in his fishing grounds. He slowly lumbered his way out of the creek and back to the trail I was on and I slowly backed along the trail keeping and trying to gain some more distance.

As soon as I lost eye contact at the first little bend I turned and hauled my tail out of there. Less than a quarter mile later I came across the guy and his adult charge. I told him about the bear and he turned around with me. I continued on by crossing the bridge to the Westside. I ran for another 4 miles and didn’t see any signs of any other bears. Good bye bear!

Do I believe in Omens or signs? Not really but to this point I feel really fortunate with my encounters of bears. Will I be complacent about warning signs anymore? Hell no! Will it stop me from running trails? Hell no! You hear a lot of stories about bear encounters and some of them don’t end happily. I love the trails and will always run the trails but I know the bears were there first. I’ve made a point of educating myself about bears and what to do should I encounter another. If you are a trail runner use the web as a tool a read about bears. Trail Runner magazine had a great article about bears in the September Issue. Read it!

Unfriendly people bug me

I’m always amazed at morning people. I’m not sure why maybe it’s because they are out there in the morning at the same time I am. I’m talking about those people I run past, of course. I do a quick analysis of why they are out there and put it into a one or two word classification plus a thumbs up/ thumbs down rating. Such as: Walker friendly thumbs up.

My work took me to Kelowna, BC for a day. I drove out the night before and slept over for what was supposed to be a morning delivery. I woke up and went for my morning run. Now Kelowna is more populated than where I live, on today’s run I must have come across 40 people. My interactions were as follows:

Dog walker – I said ‘Good Morning’. She said nothing even though I made friendly eye contact she looked away.

Cardio Boot camp class running in the opposite direction – I said ‘Good Morning’ to about 20 of them. Only one of them reciprocated.

A second Boot camp class- Same routine only none of them said anything, made eye contact, or even smiled. Waddup!

Two guys walking their dog – ‘Good Morning!’ they were startled and yelled ‘Jogger!’ as if to say ‘Incoming! Look out’. (The jogger comment I’ll let pass) Still I’m at 1 for 40 in reciprocated salutations.

My analysis: this town is not that friendly. This bugs me!