Firsts and Lasts: Promise Land 50k

I've said it before and I'll say it again--I am a closer.  I'm content to not race a 50k again for a while as I really need to figure out how to start hard enough to remain competitive at the distance. I find it amusing now, several years into running ultras that I consider 50k's too fast--or really, any ultra distance too fast.

Doing our usual pre-race discussions in the week leading up to Promise Land this year, Rudy and I decided to go out hard and try to keep with the lead.  Rudy can do that--he's on fire right now and generally faster than me anyway.  I have yet to figure out how to do an uphill start hard.  In recent memory, I have only started two races hard--StumpJump and Holiday Lake--both of which have very flat starts.  I kept up with them for the first 12 minutes or so of the climb, with Jake Reed well out of sight, before I had to pull back and start my hike-run.  That's that.  I wouldn't see them the rest of the day.

When I hit the long grassy road that overlaps the Hellgate course, my race plans changed abruptly.  Puke #1, out of nowhere.  Weird, I don't feel bad.  Not long before aid station two 9 miles in I had puke #2.  Switch to coke in my bottle, hoping that settles things.  Grunt my way up to the parkway not feeling bad but not eating.

My plan had been to switch gears into racing when I hit the Blue Ridge Parkway ~11 miles in, taking advantage of the extremely long downhill to come.  When I did hit the parkway in-race, I had not had any real calories--just the cup of coke in my bottle--since mile 5.  I decided then I would just stick with my original plan and hope to out-run my eventual bonk. I hit the gentle downhill across the parkway solidly under 7-minute mile pace, cruised past a couple guys and into the aid. I am extremely glad we had crew here this year so I could grab new gels that might work.  Steve filled my bottle with more watered-down coke and I bolted down the hill.  The technical descent from Sunset Fields is extremely fun, but also so full of loose rock that I was slightly worried about my choice of shoe--Nike Lunaracers that I plan to wear at Western States.  I wanted to try them out on real technical trail in a race setting, and they did just fine. I passed a guy on this stretch complaining about his feet and mine felt great! I love hopping on the rocks, and my stomach was empty enough that it didn't feel upset. I ran this stretch well and finally got Ginger ale into my bottle and belly at Cornelius Creek.  Two guys left the aid station just before me, and I was still trying to just outrun my bonk, so I took off down the gravel road with a nice 13:10 2-mile stretch before popping back onto singletrack.  Finally on the brief climb away from the road, my hunger won out of the upset stomach and I scarfed down two Passion Fruit Gu Roctane gels--they went down smooth and I yo-yo'd with a guy here briefly before he pulled away on an extended climb. I would pass him up the ever-brutal Apple Orchard Falls climb.

More coke in the bottle at the mile 25 aid station and I was off to the only boring part of the course, rolling service road to connect back with Cornelius Creek at mile 29. I actually enjoy this section; it's fun to cruise on.  However, my stomach decided to give me some more surprises and I lost about 5 minutes to pit-stops between these two aid stations alone.

I saw Jordan Chang just before Cornelius Creek 2, prior to aforementioned climb, who was surviving the Boston-Promise Land double that is much hard than Boston 2 Big Sur, only 5 days after his massive PR up in Massachusetts.  The aid station was mayhem with all the people still coming down the mountain hitting it the first time and taking their time at the table.  A cup of Mountain Dew rocket fuel in my bottle and another straight down the hatch and I took off trying to keep making up time.  I ran the Apple Orchard Falls climb a full minute faster than the year before in a not-fast, but respectable 45 minutes.  I was surprised it was faster than the year before as I made a point to run every step last year and actually hiked some this year.

I also actually stopped to fill my bottle and dip my hat in a stream on the way up this year.  I felt elated hitting the top in decent time, and did not even stop. I walked through the aid station to down a cup of mountain dew, but that was all knowing I can run the last 5 downhill miles in ~30 minutes. Or so I thought. I ran hard across the field and up the last tiny climb. I tried for one last nip of gel to ensure I had ample energy to hammer all the way down to the finish, and ended up losing a couple minutes giving it back to the trail on top of the little bop out of that field.  Oh well, time to get at it.

I leaned forward and let momentum get me into a fast rhythm through the singletrack section of the descent as I tried to shake off puke #4.  One of my goals for the race was to run a sub-5 mile on the final gravel road descent.  At least I met that goal. I hit that final 2.5 mile road like a bat out of hell with the first mile on it at 4:47 and the full final 5k of the race being 16:24.  Is it still a 5k PR if it's downhill?

I passed another two people on this final road descent to end up 8th overall. I believe I was 20th or so at the Blue Ridge Parkway 10 miles into the race.  No one passed me from then on either.

Gear:
Patagonia Air Flow Tank--our new team jersey and the first shirt I don't mind wearing for a full ultra when the weather is actually warm.
Patagonia Strider Pro shorts--Love how many pockets these have so I can keep everything in separate pockets and not have to dig around looking for anything particular.
Nike Lunaracers--if I could find a way to get these cheap I'd probably run in them almost exclusively. Best ultra-racing shoe I've found.
Simple Hydration Bottle--it just works!

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Overall, I really can't complain. I know I was in shape to run 4:50 or so, but I'm actually pretty happy to run a 11 minute PR off so little calories. I got out for a tempo run the next day even.  I feel like I processed the run like a fast long run rather than a race, which is much better for the next two months leading up to Western States.

On the team front, Rudy crushed another one. Watch out for him at Bighorn in June. Same with Darren; that kid finally discovered the magic of gels during races--he'll be poised to crush San Juan Solstice once he gets a few long days at altitude.  Our girls team is really coming along as well; which makes me super happy. I was worried there wouldn't be more than one or two of them.

I really cannot say enough about how special the team is to me.  I hope it continues to grow.  We will be working this summer on ways to make that happen without the founding parties around.  I hope I can check back in 5-10 years and see a flourishing community of ultrarunners at Virginia Tech, even more so than we have now.


Western States is just under 8 weeks away now.  I'm planning to just keep rolling since I ended up not racing Promise Land.  Time to get into the big boy mileage.  Western States is very much my course. It is downhill and a back-half course. I hope to be picking people off for about 40 miles ;)

See you in Squaw

With a poor Terrapin Mountain performance now a week past and my legs feeling springy again, this feels as good a time as any to write this.  This post is mostly a reminder to myself, but enjoy.

1.  Do what AJW says.  I got a coach, and in particular AJW because I trust him to know what is best.  Do not question.

2.  Hit workouts HARD and easy days EASY.  Generally I am happy to trot along easy on my easy days, but as training picks up, I want to emphasize it.  Easy days are for recovery, there's no reason to work on them. I'll be doing three workouts and a long run each week--I will need the easy days.

3.  Get my core routine up to 25 minutes.  I'm at 15 right now, slacking a little after taking a week off from it.

4.  Get to the mountains regularly.  In February it was far too easy to lace up my shoes and head straight out the door.  We're lucky in Blacksburg to have a myriad of wonderful trails and different styles of mountains nearby--take advantage.

5.  Believe I am capable of performing.  All spring various people have been telling me to go for top 10.  Regardless of whether or not that is a viable goal, it's time I start believing it is.

11. Recover. I'm lucky that I can get by (right now) working part time, living pretty simply.  I have a plum job too, and I do stretch in my cubicle sometimes.  I have a lot of time to dedicate to real recovery; I should make use of it.

12. Eat. Nonstop. All. Day.

13.  Make it to Colorado in May--and more so to the start line in Squaw Valley--in one piece and healthy.  I was teetering on the overtraining line last Fall leading into the Grindstone that never was. I was ripping a month later after a month shifted into short, faster running and away from mileage.  I should be better off this time around; with all the workouts the time on my feet should be lower but I am still going to monitor well.

14. Remember the main goal. I am signed up for only one more ultra prior to Western States because I have trouble doing races as training runs.  I love Promise Land--so there is no way I could not run again this year--but I have to make sure I keep it in its place and not overdo it there.

15.  Enjoy every minute.  I'm lucky that I get to do this and that my friends are going to be supporting me there.  I want to make sure I enjoy and relish every minute.

16.  Lastly, I will see you in squaw ;)

Spring Catch-Up: Pre-Cruel Jewel

VT Ultra team

Promise Land Recap: Started with cramping calves, ran up Apple Orchard. Made it from Sunset Fields to the finish in 32 minutes.  Felt like I could keep going for a while at the finish; good tune-up for Cruel Jewel. I also squeaked into the top 10 for the first time at a Horton race, pretty excited about that. I passed 9 people in the last 5 miles.

We had 5 in the top 15!!

I peaked with a 92 mile training week, 104 miles on a 7-day span. Nearly what I did for Grindstone, but I did this one earlier.  Everything this Spring has been MUCH faster than I was running last autumn though, so I know I'm fit right now.   Also in March, I did 3 ultras in 15 days as a training experiment that ended really well, and gave me a lot of confidence in slogging.

One new thing this year is, thanks to my Suunto Ambit, I'm tracking my climb.  January through April, I climbed 35,050 feet, 42,950 feet, 45,000 feet, and 60,100 feet.  Pretty awesome progression, and plenty of gain I think for Cruel Jewel's (likely padded) 30,000 feet of climb.  Max week was ~25,000 feet of climb as well, back in February just for fun.

This past weekend, I headed up to Ohio with Rudy and Wyatt of VT Ultra. They were running 50s For Yo Momma, a 50 mile (Rudy) and 50k (Wyatt) done on a 5.2 mile loop course.  Rain for days prior caused it to be a sloppy mess after only a couple laps.  Rudy still pulled out a WIN in a solid time and Wyatt pulled off 3rd place on a less than stellar day.  I paced Rudy is last two laps, got covered in mud, and realized a little bit of information.  The week before Grindstone I paced Rudy to his first win at the Uber Rock 50k. A week later I ran a great Grindstone for my first 100.  Great confidence boost for Cruel Jewel!

Lots of mud for 10 miles

Fun gang

Virginia Tech Graduation is this weekend. I'll be down in Georgia racing the Cruel Jewel 100 with my friend and mentor Eric Grossman rather than walking.  During the ceremony, I'll have been traipsing through the woods for 70-80 miles already, likely hallucinating, falling apart at the seems, and loving every minute of it.  That will be my graduation; the woods are my school.

.Cruel Jewel Profile

I've worked my ass off; now it's time to play.

End of the year.

Well, it's all done.  This post is pretty long and probably doesn't make a lot of sense.  You've been warned.

Some numbers for 2012:

8 ultras, 400 miles, 78 hours 30 minutes, and more gain than I feel like adding up.  Basically, a LOT of running.

The BEAST Series is a pretty special series.  Having the "faster" events of Mountain Masochist and Hellgate after the Grindstone 100 makes for some interesting decisions regarding recovery and training between events.  Regardless of what certain people might say, 100 milers put a great deal of deep and lingering fatigue into the legs, enough so for me that aside from the week of MMTR, I never ran a week over 55 miles all fall.  I substituted mileage for quality, doing 1-2 workouts per week which worked out well for MMTR, but by the time Hellgate rolled around, I felt pretty drained and somewhat de-motivated.  When anyone asked me about Hellgate recently, my normal response become "Well, I'm ready to be done."  That said, if I don't get into Hardrock for 2012, there is a very good chance that I repeat the series.  I've learned a lot this year, and I love Grindstone much more than any other event I've done, so I want to be back there every year for a while.

ANYWAY.  Hellgate.  That funny little 100k race in December in the mountains of Virginia. On a lot of horse trail.  There's nothing like it.  This was the snow year of MMTR and the warm year for Hellgate.  If I had been running better toward the end, I would have been extremely comfortable with my shirt off. I believe the high was almost 70.

The race:
Starting off, I took off a little bit, but quickly (within minutes) realized I didn't want to run all night alone so I slowed to run with Rudy and Fletcher, a couple friends and both good runners.  We made good work of the first climb, running most of it but not really working that hard.  Fletcher fell back because his foot went numb (and yet he finished), so Rudy and I proceeded to run together through ~mile 40.  Rudy and I have shared a lot of miles this year, so we work well together and could mover very efficiently over the course. We made good work of the following sections, just ticking off the miles talking about anything and everything.  There are some super fun single track stretches through there.  Somewhere in here, I managed to spotlight a dear with my headlamp.  I think that is a good testament to the Nao.  I started caffeine early (about 3:00 am) because it was all the calories I had left halfway through  the 10+ miles between AS 3 and  AS 4.  At dawn, I stopped to water the trees and could feel my heart beat doing some funny things, mainly being way too fast, so I cut out caffeine for 90 minutes or so to help settle it.  Rudy ran on when I stopped again at mile 40, and then began having peroneal tendon pain (MMTR strikes back)as I got through the rock-garden downhill switchbacks that caused me to have a complete breakdown last year.  Coming into Bearwallow, I took an Ibuprofen and left quickly hoping to pick off some people on the easiest(?) third of the course.

I am very, VERY glad Wyatt, another VT ultrarunner and friend, volunteered to pace.  He kept me moving when I was in a good deal of pain, and without him, there is a good change I would have walked down the entire final 3 mile stretch.  The pain in my peroneal tendon go worse and worse the last marathon until I began wondering if it was a stress fracture.  Leading to Bobblet's gap, I passed 1 guy, then going through the forever section, I passed 2 more and got passed by 3 or 4 and I started slowing.   I had told people prior to this that I didn't care if I had to crawl across the finish line, I would finish Hellgate this year, and the day almost came to that.  This was the most physical pain I've run through, and the hardest I've had to grind in a run or race before.  The next day, my ENTIRE body was sore.  Arms, legs, chest, core, shoulders, neck.  I seriously gave everything I had to Hellgate this year, and even though my time isn't what I wanted it to be, I know I did everything I could and I'm extremely happy with the outcome.  I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say I would have dropped last year.

The only thing I truly wanted out of ultrarunning this year was to get tougher, and I did.

Addendum:

Dr. Horton, our wonderful race director and inspirational ultramarathon guru, underwent a 7-way bypass today and this had me thinking a lot.  I'm not sure if I've seen Dr. Horton even 20 times these past couple years, but he has had a great impact on my life, not only through his races, but due to the spectacular sense of self-appreciation and encouragement.  I was quite honestly scared out of my whits during late summer as Grindstone began to approach and conversations with Dr. Horton had me feeling that I would not only finish, but finish well.  His attitude is contagious and he is one of the best overall people that I have met in my short life.  I heard his surgery went smoothly, and I am very happy for that, for him and his family.

Weekend in Pictures:

The start!

Aid Station 4

Anguish

The nice lump on my foot Sunday afternoon.

Beyond done.  Check out that sweet form, heel strike all the way!

The gang.

5 Down, 1 To Go

Aside from a nagging achilles tendon (fixed with a shoe change), recovery from Grindstone went smoothly.  I took it easy basically the entire race there, which I guess helped a lot.  I did two interval workouts in the two middle weeks between races, and a couple tempo runs as well.  What else can you really do to prepare when you have a race only a month out from a 100 miler?  I topped out at a 48 mile week, which might actually have been more than I should have done, but everything worked out for the best. 

I had a very different thoughts going into Mountain Masochist compared to Grindstone.  Being 50 miles on an easier course,  I knew it would feel short and fast, and I had just spent about 5 months preparing to go slow for a very long time.  I was also excited to go and Hurricane Sandy only exemplified that.  I love bad weather and snow, so I actually thrilled to hear of snow on the second half of the course.  I figured that the snow would slow everything down a little and force some slogging (exactly what I can do right now).  I also figured that I wouldn't suffer as much as a lot of people nearby me, which would be beneficial late in the race.  I can never seem to get the right combination of clothes for 30ish degree weather, and I was warm once the sun was up, ditching my arm warmers at AS #3, and taking my gloves on and off all day.  Nothing really happened in the first half of the race.  I ran from mile 13 to the loop with Rudy, and we just methodically moved up through the places all the way. Relentless Forward Progress.  I stopped to fertilize the trees and he went on to a super great finish in 12th place in his second 50 mile. With the loop came snow, high up my shins in places.   The footsteps of those in front of me hadn't yet flattened out the snow, but just formed footholds awkwardly spaced apart, forcing a lot of awkward running and hiking.  If I had realized how big of a break this ended up being in the middle of the race, I would have probably run most of the climb up to Buck Mountain, but so it goes.  The snow was a blast, and I ran with complete reckless abandon on the downhills--something that I really love to do in the snow when everything is soft and smooth.  Talking to people after the race, I seemed to be the only person who really enjoyed going through all that snow.

 The snow got pretty deep and slog-worthy after leaving the mile 42 AS.  I left just ahead of Gary Robbins who (of course) caught up soon and we shared a couple miles together working through the awkward snow/ice covered trails.  He had actually run an extra 4.5 miles (the only way we were near each other) and was making his way back up, still having a blast.  Since I was wearing Montrail Rogue Flys (great shoe), he asked about them and the conversation turned to races and Grindstone as he was there too.  He told me my Grindstone time was "fucking awesome" which as a pretty great boost trudging up the steepest climb of the race before we go downhill the rest of the way to the finish.  Gary moved on and I stopped one more time before taking off after him.  I hit the last aid station with 4 miles to go at 8:36, determined to make a sub-9 hour finish, so I took a cue from cross country days, and started windmilling my arms to drive up my momentum.  The final mile of downhill ended up being ~5:56, super fast for mile 49 of a 50 mile race.  I took two bottles of my Succeed slurry, several packages of chomps, and two cans worth of mountain dew, plus some food at the aid stations.  The slurries have made racing a lot easier, I have energy throughout, and I think I've gotten pretty good at burning fat for fuel.  Few the few days after races, even after I've made up the calorie deficit, I seem much leaner than I used to.

I squeaked by in 8:58, meeting my original time goal for MMTR--before hearing of the snow conditions.  Plus 20th out of 297 starters is kind of cool, I'm not used to that.  This race actually took more out of me than Grindstone, so I'm taking it easy all week before putting in some focus work for Hellgate next month.  That will be fun.  Hellgate is something special, and so far everything this Fall has gone smoothly.  I won't DNF this time; I'm ready to suffer.  As soon as I crossed the finish line at MMTR, Dr. Horton said to me, "I hope you saved something for Hellgate."  I hope so too, I've got some redemption to take care of there.

Side note/more important:  This is the VT Ultrarunning Club's first true team race, and we had some great placing and 100% finisher's rate! Something that is definitely made even better by the course conditions.  Rachel maintained second in the LUS on her bum ankle, cringing all the way to the finish line.  David persevered through a rough day, Wyatt had fun all day, and I should probably ask Kelly how her run went.  Seeing people finish at and after twelve hours was very inspiring--those guys and gals are MUCH tougher than the rest of us, that's a long time to be out there and it hurts a lot more.  I was finishing back there just last year, I know how that feels.

See you people in 5 weeks.

Beast Series

Two Races left in the next 8 weeks.  I did my second run since Grindstone today, 6.5 miles in 70 minutes on Lookout Mountain--decent pace for that terrain.  Since I'm recovered well from Grindstone I thought I'd finally take a look into all of this race series business.

The top 5 for the Beast Series are below, pulled from Horton's website.

	1	Knipling, Keith	4:36:14	5:12:39	5:24:03	22:34:42			37:47:38
	2	Murase, Yosuke	4:23:22	4:57:53	5:16:50	24:50:06			39:28:11
	3	Myers, Michael	4:33:45	5:32:25	5:57:04	23:46:55			39:50:09
	4	Love, Guy	4:59:59	5:16:57	6:15:07	24:51:12			41:23:15
	5	Jasinski, Bob	4:45:53	5:30:19	6:55:21	26:08:31			43:20:04

Keith is clearly untouchable.  He's a great runner, and it was fluke that I was a few minutes behind him at Terrapin.  I am curious to see if I can make up the 93 minutes on Michael though, and more so the 115 minutes on Yosuke in the next couple races--that one is probably not doable unless he's really hurting and I'm running really well.  I wish Masochist was one week later so I would have a chance to get out on the first half of the course that I've never seen and learn it, but so it goes.  I won't be pushing it until close to "the climb" anyway--I can't move fast on flats, but apparently I've learned to climb up and down mountains with reasonable proficiency.

This is weird for me; when I first started thinking about my goals for 2012, one of them was squeaking into top 5 for the Beast Series.  Now I'm hunting down 3rd.  It's interesting how much you can improve in this sport since mountain racing has so many variables that just don't come into play in shorter (or even just flatter) races.  I suppose Grindstone was what people call a breakthrough race? I didn't run an amazing time by any means, but I ran faster than people expected me to, and I ran that time in a very conservative race.  I think that will definitely help me in the next couple months as I won't have trashed myself before the last 120 or so miles of racing.  The variables of mountain racing are spectacular If one person has a bad day at a race like Masochist, they can very easily fall back 40 minutes to an hour off their normal race time.  Don't get me wrong, I know full well this could easily happen to me.  In a series where the 100 mile kicks off the fall racing, there is bound to be some carnage in the next two races.  I'm really looking forward to suffering at Hellgate.  I hope the weather is horrible.


On the VTUltra front, 6 of us are running MMTR, two people as their first 50 mile.  For the fast people, Rudy is the fastest of us; he doesn't have any time goals, but he's a good racer and he'll deliver on November 3.  Rachel--I'm predicting somewhere under/close to 9 hours and maybe top-3, depending on who shows up.  It's time for her to hammer a race I think.  Myself, I think I'll be somewhere near Rachel, but the faster the better. It's going to feel so short.

Promise Land and Updates

Some days go smoothly.  Some days are trials of mental strength.  Promise Land was the latter.  Early this year I had set this as a focus for the year, and trained through both Holiday Lake and Terrapin Mountain earlier in the year to be able to peak leading up to Promise Land.  I felt pretty much back to normal only a couple days after Terrapin Mountain last month, so I put in 3 solid training weeks with long runs, tempo runs, hill work, and climbing workouts before a structured two-week taper into Promise Land.  I was really tired by the time I finished that third week of training, but I figured two weeks would be plenty of time to regroup before the race. Apparently not.  I went through some ups and downs in energy levels in those couple weeks, and was sick for about 5 days in the middle.

Starting up the climb from the start Saturday morning, I knew I didn't feel right.  I felt pretty low, even though I had actually eaten a 300 calorie breakfast an hour before the start.  I settled in to some alternating hiking up that climb to take in some Gu and hope things turned around.  I started with a Lemon-Lime gel to avoid caffeine so early, and the taste made me gag. So there's another gel flavor I can't take anymore.  I was actually surprised at how mellow the grade was all the way to the first aid station and then again on the climb to the parkway the first time.  If I'd had energy I would have made that much faster.  I took a roctane gel on the stretch of path alongside the parkway and that perked me up a little.  I had still been running very conservatively all the way to Sunset Fields 1 waiting for my energy to come.  I thought the upcoming downhill would help since I really love technical downhill.  I got stuck behind a group of 8 guys here that were trotting down and several of them were not very courteous to my passing.  After a couple minutes I made it through the pack and started rolling downhill.  I had fun with this section and it perked me up a bit, but I felt the descent a lot more than I should have.  The section from Cornelius Creek to the mile 21ish aid station was uneventful.  I had taken a couple ibuprofen and was downing Clif Bloks as best I could to get some energy.  When I got to the mile 21 aid station just before the long climb back up to Cornelius Creek and then Sunset Fields, I was frustrated that i still did not have energy so I just said "F*** it" and decided that I might as well try to make up time.  I ducked my head down and began to grind.  I ran every step from that aid station to the 176 steps (except for a single 6-step set of stone stairs).  I guess those uphill treadmill workouts did some good.  I passed several people through here and it was a little motivating as I was trying to salvage my day as best I could.

I started to run up the stair section, but on the first step my calf seized and the cramps began.  I started an arm-swinging power hikes, lifting from my hips and keeping my feet flat to not flex my calves.  This worked fairly well actually, and afterwords the grade became level enough to run without cramping.   When I hit Sunset Fields for the last time, the sky was dark and storms were beginning to roll in.  The temperature felt lower than the 45-degree start at 5:30am.  I ate a handful of salt (they were out of potatoes) and left quickly for the downhill to the finish, fearing the storms as I was shirtless and did not have a shell or anything.  I have to admit, when the rain, then sleet, then hail hit on the grassy trail just down from Sunset Fields, running scared of hypothermia put some extra pep in my step.  I ran this section pretty fast even though I was definitely suffering down the mountain.  I was on the very of cramps still and the hail coming down on my tensed-up skin was stinging a good bit.  I got to the gravel road section and another guy showed up right behind me.  We both left for the finish, sprinting down the service road as fast as we could.  My form was poor from here on as I had adjusted to put most of the hammering onto my quads.  We really flew through this and I was just glad to be done when I hobbled across the finish line after my right leg cramps up just before crossing into the field.  All told, I only ate 2.5 gels, 6 clif bloks, and an orange slice all race.

So after the fact, I am content with how the day played out.  It was not the race I trained for and not the race I wanted, but I do think it was what I needed.  Holiday Lake, Terrapin Mountain, and my Spring training had gone off without a hitch, and I hadn't suffered in a while.  This is the most I've suffered to have still finished a race, and it gave me confidence in beginning my training for Grindstone in October.   I'll definitely be back to Promise Land, most likely next year, and knowing the course now, I'm excited for that.

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In other news, I, along a few friends, have set up a Virginia Tech Trail/Ultrarunning club team.  Pretty pumped for this to be official and to hopefully get more people out onto the trails next year.  Further, I heard back yesterday and we are confirmed for Gu sponsorship for the following year!