Montrail athlete and Vancouver resident Gary Robbins recently completed the 215km East Coast Trail (ECT) of Canada in a record time of 35 hours and 17 minutes.  We caught up with Gary in an effort to bring his story to life and find out more about what it takes to put forth this type of effort:

Montrail:  Gary, 215km is an epic run.  35 hours plus.  Have you ever run for that long of time or distance?

Gary: Not even close! My longest distance was 100miles and I’d never run more than 24hrs before. It was all new ground for me and I really feel like I gained some mental toughness out there last weekend.

What was the former speed record on the ECT and who held it?

Former record was just over 41hr held by Ray Zahab. If you haven’t heard of Ray he ran across The Sahara with Kevin Lin and Charlie Engle and starred in the aptly named documentary ‘Running The Sahara’. He also recently set a South Pole Speed Record, and a frozen Lake Baikal speed record in Russia.

For most people it’s unfathomable to think of running, or even moving in any manner, for 35 hours.  How do you get mentally prepared for such a long, challenging, and ultimately painful adventure?

I headed into this one with a decent hip injury so I knew it was going to take a lot of fortitude to pull it off.  Expectations can be a killer though and when the trail proved to be much, much tougher than I ‘expected’ it to be it took me quite a while to get my head straight again. A great lesson learned going forward into hopefully tougher and longer events in the future.

Okay, so now you’re up and you’re out on the trail.  10 hours go by, 20 hours go by.  By now you must be tired and hurting a bit, and you’re alone.  How do you stay motivated at this point?  Obviously you can’t just quit, because you’re out in the wilderness all alone, but you could certainly walk, or lie down for some rest.  Do you have to convince your body to keep on, or is just automatic at that point?

I wish it were automatic! At one point a 20mile section took me seven and a half hours! It was one of the lowest moments I have ever faced out on the trails and all I wanted to do was to lay down and cry. Outside of the knowledge that I was completely out there on my own and no one was coming to get me, I knew I’d see my family at the end of that section. Having their support along the way allowed my motivation to stay much higher than it would have had I been without their assistance.

Tell me about the trail.  Many around the world are probably not familiar with the East Coast Trail of Canada, but anything that’s continuous for 215km is a trail worth knowing about.  What kind of terrain did you run on?  How’s the scenery?

First and foremost the scenery is second to none! Unfortunately this was a low iceberg season in Newfoundland but as you can imagine that would only add to how spectacular it is. It’s a very rugged coastline and has a lot more climbing than I had expected. Highlights of the scenery included massive sea stacks, sea arches, numerous mini fjords (Nfld has true fjords on The Northern Peninsula), a ‘blow hole’ that spouts water up over 15 feet like a geyser, and a strong possibility of moose, bear, bald eagle, whale and puffin sightings!

My Garmin watch gave me close to 20,000 feet, even after corrections were applied, but we all know these numbers can sway quite high so I take that with a grain of salt. The entire route is singletrack, but the unfortunate side of it is that it sees very little usage and the organization overseeing the trail is 100% volunteer based. Many extended sections of the trail are completely overgrown. There were no issues with navigation, but it was simply impossible to run much of the trail. What I consider to be the greatest attribute of the trail is that it constantly intersects with small fishing villages all along the coastline. On average you come through a town about every 15miles and then run through that town for about three miles before heading back onto the trail again. It is designed so that people can hike it in an average ten days and stay in small B&B’s along the way. I only saw about four camping areas and only came across one tent at night, and two hikers during the day! It’s a very isolated experience that you would have trouble duplicating anywhere else in the world.

How do you prepare logistically for a project like this, and who helped you out this time around?

This trail passes along the coast just a few miles from where I grew up and all of my family still reside back in Nfld. I would actually say that on a personal level the logistics of the 75km West Coast Trail were harder than this 215km effort…but my parents might argue that one! My Mother, Father, Niece, Brother, and his girlfriend were there for me every step of the way. At one point my brother hopped out of the car to run with me for ten minutes and he took a dog bite to the leg!!  We laughed about it afterwards but he probably saved my run for me right then and there.  Every now and then my Mother and Niece would hop out and run with me too, while my Father drove along side of us. At the moments where I wanted to curl up and die, their support kept me strong and allowed me to fake strength that I didn’t know I possessed.

How do you feel right now, a week or so after the run?  How did your body feel in the day or two after the run?

Maybe it was due to how many sections had to be hiked, but outside of swelling I could not believe how mobile I was after this one, even taking stairs without using the railing just one day later. A week out and my legs feel great but my hip injury has sidelined my running for the immediate future. I’ve only made it twenty minutes since finishing the trail, but I have some amazingly talented people helping me figure out the injury and hopefully I’ll bounce back strong after a nice little break!

What gear did you use on this run, head to toe?
-Montrail Mountain Masochists
-Drymax Socks. Gotta give Bob his props. He dared me to try his socks and I’ll never wear any other product again. I didn’t get a single serious blister!
-Mountain Hardwear Refueler shorts
-Mountain Hardwear Wicked Lite short sleeve and long sleeve
-Mountain Hardwear Quark Jacket
-Mountain Hardwear Geist Jacket
-Montrail Hat
-Mountain Hardwear Momentum Running gloves
-Nathan handheld water bottles, two or three at a time

What’s next for you?  Any races or other huge speed record attempts in your near future?

Next biggie on the schedule is to head back to Hawaii in January and try to better my 20h12m effort at HURT 100. I’m dreaming of some bigger speed attempts again in 2011 but have yet to figure out exactly when or what. I really love the balance that an adventure running speed attempt brings to an overall racing season.

Have more questions for Gary?  Ask in the Comments sections and he’ll answer you.

Andy and I decided to make Transrockies into a looooong roadtrip to save some costs. So we’re driving back from Colorado right now. We’re in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Oregon. It’s pretty quite. We’re listening to This American Life on a podcast. I’ve had more quality alone time with Andy in the last week than I have with my family all summer. I know that’s not good, but when you run a six day stage race with one teammate you get a 2-3hr run every day with them, two 20hr drives to Colorado and back, and time during the day to hang out and relax, and you sleep in the same tent every night.

Transrockies is a unique experience that allows you to really let go of everything, lets you focus on the present, and get to know the athletes competing with you. For many of the athletes running it’s quite the life changing experience. A marathon is an experience that lasts for a couple hours, maybe 5, but after that it’s back to life as normal, you don’t get to know your fellow competitors, talk about your aches and pains, your athletic pursuits, or learn from the experience they’ve gained through athletics. Tranrockies is the kind of event that you’re immersed in for a longer period of time than just your normal marathon. You get to know your competitors intimately and in the end become lifelong friends with them. The six day stage format of Transrockies plays to my strengths as a shorter distance trail racer but what makes it a race I come back to are the people competing that become good friends by the end of the week, the staff that takes care of everything for us except the actually running, and the experience of running through some of the West’s most beautiful landscapes.

Start of Stage 1

Andy and I are currently having GORE-TEX Transrockies Run theme song withdrawal. It’s a good thing he’s got it on his iPod so we can listen do it when we need a fix. If you’ve done Transrockies then you know what I’m talking about. We hear this song every day right before the start of each stage and every night at the start of the awards ceremony. As a theme song, it’s destined to be a ranked as a B rated track in everyone’s mind, but despite this it’s actually a pretty good song. I know some, (Hal and Eric) would disagree but that’s ok. My taste in music is different. If you haven’t heard it you can download it at transrockies.com.

Stage 0 – The 20hr drive to Buena Vista with 3hrs of sleep : We rolled in to Buena Vista last Saturday around 4pm after a night of 3hrs of sleep on the road and a quick stop in Twin Lakes to watch the Leadville 100. We’d done our homework on the competition and figured the boys from Run Flagstaff would give us our greatest challenge. There was also a team from Rock Creek Racing in TN that we would keep an eye on.  You never know who’s going to show up though and usually there’s some team that we wouldn’t see coming. That’s what happened two years ago with a team from the UK.

Climb up Hope Pass on Stage 2

Packing that evening was easy this year. We were given bags that were big enough to use as a sleeping bag for both Andy, me and possibly a few other people. They were big. This poses a problem, while I can throw everything in, a bag this big when full isn’t something a 140lb runner can handle easily.

Stage 1-6 – The actual race: Buena Vista to Beaver Creek: We started each day with a great breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon or sausage and some oatmeal. Yeah, eggs, potatoes, and meat aren’t on my normal pre-race meal plan but hey, I can’t waste food that was fixed for me, plus, it was good and with three hours of running at altitudes above 8000ft I was going to need some extra calories this week. Most stages involved at least one large climb and 3000 – 4500ft of climbing a day. We covered ~117 miles over six days with 14mile being the shortest and 25miles being the longest day. I’m always pretty impressed by the field. I know not everyone is doing 100 mile weeks so for the other athletes these six days have to be tough. Doing a 100mile week isn’t easy on flat ground at sea level but to have to do it with huge climbs, on tough trails, at an altitude only a fraction of the competitors live at is asking a lot of your body. After finishing each stage it’s matter of figuring out how best to get the most relaxation time in as possible. After getting some recovery food in, stretching, an ice bath and a shower, usually I take the approach of sitting in a reclining lawn chair for a good three to five hours talking to people. Learning from them, about them, and talking about running, of course.  Then it’s dinner from Bill the Cowboy Caterer and the evening program with a recap from the day, Cynthia’s (the Gore-Tex lady) story of the day, the awards, into to tomorrow’s stage, and finally pics and video of the day’s stage. The crew does an incredible job of taking care of everything to make us as comfortable as possible and I think everyone has an incredible experience.

Running around Buena Vista in Stage 1

The race itself turned out to be fairly relaxing after a couple days. We had thrown down a pretty good time on day one to gain a 7min lead over Flagstaff and continued to gain a few minutes each day so that by day three we had a pretty comfortable lead. Flagstaff fought a good battle though and were great to run with. The fact that we were well trained for hills and long miles this year kept our legs feeling good day after day and allowed us to continue strong through the end of day six.  For recaps of the other days and other competitors, slideshows of pictures from each stage, and video from each stage to www.transrockies.com.

Celebration of our win with a little champagne

Stage 7 – Townsend Place Condos to The Dusty Boot… and back: The final banquet wraps up much the way most of the evening programs did but with no race the next day, the runners and staff feel the need to unwind at a local bar called the Dusty Boot. What happens at the Dusty Boot, stays at the Dusty Boot.

Stage 8 – 20hr drive home with a stop at Arches National Park for a run: The drive was pretty quiet, the run was going great until at 1:30 into the run Andy stopped running. Dehydration, due in large part to unsaid happenings at the Dusty Boot, was the culprit. My response: But dude, how can you be dehydrated, we drank a ton last night. He just stared, and started jogging again. With hurricane force winds, camping was out of the question so we finally broke down and spent $40 on a dive hotel. I wasn’t sure which used bar of soap to use in the shower or if after taking a shower my infected toe would be worse off or better.

According to Andy all I did for the team was whine and complain. Day one was my hip flexor and achilles, day 3 I tripped on a stick (but didn’t fall), and day 4 I was tired, yesterday I complained about my infected toe. That was my contribution to the team. I was so grateful to have Andy as a team mate. He led me to the finish every day…except when I was pulling his butt up every hill in the Rockies. Don’t know what I would have done without him. We are Team Montrail/Hammer Nutrition.

This is an amazing event and if you’re a trail runner, one that should fit on the calendar at least once. And I don’t recommend thinking of it as a race, because you’ll never be able to rationalize doing a $1300 race, but as an adventure vacation of a lifetime instead. That’s a lot easier to explain to the wife.

Wednesday it’s on to Slovenia for the World Mountain Running Championships. Arrive Thursday, acclimate, race Sunday (12km, 5000ft uphill), fly home Monday. It’ll be a quick trip and hopefully successful, either way, it’ll be good experience and a good test of how much my hill climbing has improved. Look for a report next week.

With my recent move to Fort Collins, CO I’ve been canvassing the area in search of running routes. Yesterday Nick Clark and I took a trip to Pingree Park for a 24-ish mile run up in the Comanche Peaks Wilderness area, which also took us partly into Rocky Mountain National Park. Here are some photos from the run, with more from this area to come in the next few weeks as I explore the new territory. Also – Rocky Mountain National Park is like the Tetons: high, cold, windy and STEEP! Big plans….

The Rogue runs free and the timing couldn’t more perfect.

Max King’s S11 Rogue Racer

Montrail unveiled their new minimalist trail runner, the Rogue Racer at Outdoor Retailer show just last week, and August 11th, it was announced that the Gold Ray Dam on Oregon’s Rogue River will be removed. The new 157-mile stretch of free running waters on the Rogue River has been a long time coming; a great accomplishment for the river’s advocate organizations such as Montrail’s Gives Back partner The Conservation Alliance, Waterwatch and Rogue Flyfishers.

Max King, Montrail runner and fellow Oregonian, loves life’s sweet ironies. “Just as we announced the new S11 Rogue Racer, a minimalist trail shoe named after the Rogue Valley, the Rogue River gets freed up as well. It’s great that the salmon, the river and the trail runner are all getting the chance to once again run free.” Max worked closely with the Montrail Product Team to design an ultralight and fast trail runner, something for all his miles on the trail, both in training and on race day.

AP Photo/Mail Tribune, Jamie Lusch

Read the full story on the Gold Ray Dam, Rogue River carves its way around Gold Ray Dam ahead of schedule written by Joe Rojas-Burke.

Last Saturday was the USATF 50 mile trail championships at the White River 50 in Crystal Mountain, WA, outside of Seattle. I was there, along with many other top ultrarunners, to see what I could do against a high level of competition.

After my last race on June 19 I wasn’t sure whether I should race White River or not, since earlier this year I stacked two races this close together and ended up dropping out of the second. But I felt great – in shape and confident – and decided to go for it. So on Friday afternoon I pulled into Crystal Mountain and headed over to the race headquarters. The participant list had only included a few names I recognized until the final week leading up to the race, when names like Scott Jurek suddenly appeared. Then, when I was finally in WA, someone told me that Anton Krupicka had decided to come back and go for his record from last year. So all of a sudden we had a super deep field, and I was psyched.

When the race began I fell into a spot about 10 guys behind the front runners. We cruised along the bottom of the valley for about three miles, when we passed through the first aid station. Half a mile later I had to stop and go to the bathroom, which majorly pissed me off and lost me five or six places and a smidgen of confidence in the race. But soon enough I was back in the race and we were headed up the first big climb of the day. This race goes from rolling trail along the valley floor to steep and outrageous uphill with hardly any indication, and all of a sudden I found myself walking up steep trail and even stairs over two minutes behind the leaders less than five miles into a 50 mile race. Questions came into my head like, “have I been deceiving myself with delusions of speed that cannot hold up to real competition?” But I immediately stopped myself from thinking like that because doing so is just going to hurt me. Plus, we had a long way to go still.

Sure enough, as the climb wore on I found myself working my way up the crowd and picking off some of the debris that had fallen off the front pack. By the time we were getting up towards the top of the mountain on the out and back section I was running with Yassine Diboun and Scott Jurek. We talked for a little bit and ran together for a short time, but after a mile or so I felt good enough to pass them and keep going. Passing Scott Jurek is kind of wild, because he’s The Man, right? I wasn’t sure if what I was doing was advisable, but decided to go ahead anyway, spurred on by the unbelievably stunning views of Mt. Rainier and its glaciers. At the turnaround point I was about two minutes behind Anton, and by the time I reached the long downhill back to the road I was feeling good and looking ahead to catch him. But he managed to stay out of sight all the way down and through the next aid station, and by the time I reached the base of the Suntop trail he was 1:45 ahead of me.

The climb up to Suntop was long and hard. On a normal training run I could have run the whole thing, but after almost thirty miles of mountain running already in my legs I was forced to walk about a third of the climb. Anton, of course, ran the whole thing and put something like 15 to 17 minutes on me by the top. Right below the top, when the trail crosses the road I saw him fly by going downhill and my hopes of catching him more or less evaporated. But I still had second to maintain! So I dragged myself to the aid station, drank some coke, ate some food and took some salt pills and then began the long downhill dirt road section to Skookum flats. I am good at downhill running, and though this wasn’t technical I managed to recover quite a bit so that when I reached the bottom I flew onto the final rolling trail through the trees at something like a 6:30 pace. This was maintained for about three miles until my body stopped enjoying running and began to shut down. Two gels and too much walking later, I jogged onto the road and ran the final half mile to the finish, where I was greeted by a decidedly un-sweaty Anton and many other cheering onlookers. My final finish time was 6:49, whereas Anton threw down a serious CR 6:25. Way to go Anton – you are an amazing runner.

Scott Mcoubrey and the rest of the crew at White River put on a fantastic race. The views of Mt. Rainier and Washington are spectacular, but the mainly singletrack course stays in the trees for a majority of the race, meaning the hot sun has little effect on runners. The course is HARD, and because of that is wonderful, and I’ll surely be back soon. This was my first time running any of these trails, but the course was marked so well I had no trouble following the course whatever. And the hospitality was top notch too. Thank you to everyone who had a hand in this race, because you make life good for everyone.

Leading Up…

 
Over the years, some of my best races, have not been “races” after all, yet an event in which the outside world and inside world meet in a spirit of celebration and collaboration. This past weekend was another spirited adventure on the trails-this time in Northeastern Ohio at The National 100 Mile Trail Championships. The Burning River 100-Mile Endurance Run, just having completed it’s 4th year running takes place on the trails and roads of Cuyahoga Falls National Park and a variety of Cleveland Area Metro Parks. This year the race brought 251 starters from all over the US and from across national lines.

I was super-excited to make this 7-hour car journey north, as much about running 100 miles, as to celebrate my last days of “summer vacation”. I am a high school counselor and after having July off, faculty work days started on August 2, 2010 with the 2010/2011 school year beginning on Thursday, August 5, 2010. I thought of this weekend as my last “foray into freedom” for awhile!

After Western States 100, which was 5 weeks ago, I haven’t trained much. Recovery from WS 100 took almost 2 full weeks in which I did some short jogs and had some time on the road bike. Coach Howard gave me a schedule for the last 2 weeks which included at most a 3 hour run. I was hoping that lots of rest combined with as much planning as I could do without previewing the course would set me up for a successful day. I watched all the course videos posted on the race website, looked at past runner times and splits and compared them with my times and splits from WS last month in order to come up with a loose plan at least up until the 64 mile point…after that I wasn’t sure how long it should take me.
I thought that since BR100 has much less elevation change than WS100 I should be able to take off at least 2.5 hours from this year’s WS time, and even more depending on race day conditions. That meant that (in my own head), I could run it in 18ish hours. Little did I know during my planning, that the weather conditions, volunteers, course diversity and just plain ‘ole having a good day would add up to such a happy outcome for me!
Travel and pre-race

 
I left Jefferson, NC about 11am on Thursday and listened to borrowed library book CDs on the journey, arriving at the modest Economy Inn, 4 miles from race start by 7pm. At room check-inn I met a young Royal Navy (British Military) fellow, John Oakley who’d also be running the BR100. His room was 2 doors down from mine and although we didn’t hang out much, his journey to this event and adventurous spirit and complete courage with abandon inspired and invited respect. More on this later!
Friday morning was spent running my “Coach Howard prescribed” 25 minute run, exploring by car and foot trailheads and little sections of the course from mile 81ish on…I expected that if I couldn’t preview the whole course, having a taste of the last 1/5 would be helpful. I discovered during my brief “scoping out” in person, that it was indeed not flat or track-like. There were plenty of hills and mud piles and roots and blackberry thatches to satisfy even the most devoted lovers of backcountry trails. This looked like a perfect urban trail race: plenty of miles of dirty, muddy, semi-maintained trails, some well-groomed trails, horse trails, boardwalks, flat bike paths and some super flat stuff followed by hilly and muddy and root surface AND pretty sights that made you wish to build a snow globe of the scene instead of hurrying through! The hilly road sections were just mellow enough in grade to warrant running instead of hiking breaks. Ahhh! An adventure of training, headspace, passion and embracing the day was at hand and I was thrilled and itchy to get going!
Race Day!

 
Race morning was early and fast. John and I met the buses at 3:20 am and arrive at race start at 4:30ish am for the 5am start. After a quick wave at Howard, I, along with 230+ others was on my way! I ran side-by-side run with fast guy (and Montrail teammate) Eric Grossman for a mile, John and ran the first 20ish miles together along with 34-year old seasoned ultra runner Harvey Lewis. John has been on ship and largely been unable to train until 5 weeks ago, yet he set forth, with some modest support from the Royal Navy to run this event. Along the way he was raising money that would go to a scholarship fund for families that got left behind after a loved one who was in the Royal Navy passed on. Harvey is 34 years old and lives in PA and has done tons of ultra running. I loved being around his passion and enthusiasm for the sport and his obvious running talent had me sucked in!

During the first 12 miles, those two guys chatted and chatted and they requested my comments (I had several opinions!), yet begged off to focus on breathing and current reality. I didn’t want to get sucked into “too fast”, yet I loved being around that life energy! Finally the fellows pulled away as I acknowledged the need to be a bit more conservative with my pace!

The 1st 9.6 miles were on the road; the remaining 90+ miles would be the varied combinations I spoke of earlier. I had planned to arrive at Shadow Lake, 18.6 by 2:40 and Ottawa Pt by 5:50. Though I have not yet seen the splits, I think I was close to spot on for both.

All clean and fresh during early miles.

The morning passed very quickly-It is hard to remember details as I was in cruise mode-running, drinking, fueling, pit stopping as necessary. It was like breathing in the terrain and surrounding without really seeing. Sounds kinda weird, yet these words most accurately describe my perception of the 1st half! Relaxed, working forward into a grand adventure!

I did not have a crew and (though it’d have been invigorating and great-) I didn’t need one, as the volunteers were attentive, responsive and encouraging! Aid stations were just as advertised and well stocked. For this reason, I left my little fanny pack in a drop bag at mile 39.6 and continued as light as can be with only a handheld Nathan Quickdraw Plus! Never before have I dared to run with so little!

Volunteers, all attired in red VOLUNTEER shirts catered to me! I felt like a rock star and appreciated their assistance. My hands were sweaty and dirty. Volunteers unscrewed my water bottle, filled it with my hearts desire-usually ½ Gatorade and ½ Hammer Heed. Though I prefer and train and race with Clif Bar Products, I have learned that without a crew, I can adjust to the race sponsored products and usually do just fine…Volunteers emptied cold sponges over my head as I dramatically yelped while I was given beta on the upcoming trail section. My only responsibilities continued to be to simply run and not hurt myself or anyone else! What a gift of freedom!

One of the many fine aid stations

Arriving at Boston Store #1(49.1) I had reached the (almost) halfway point. Yay!!! Yet not so yay as I met up with Eric Grossman who had to drop due a hamstring issue. Big-time bummer! Eric is a quiet tough guy who I believe would have placed in top 2 if “issues” didn’t present! Ick and ugh and thank you to Eric for your selflessness and encouragement!

The miles ticked by on the shadowed trails and I reached the Happy Days Aid Station at 64.1 miles feeling steady. A “little birde” informed me she heard that the next woman was gaining on me. Hhhmph. I expected that, yet didn’t love it! Thank you little birdie! As I proceeded down the mildly technical trails I met up with Harvey again and asked about our Royal Navy friend…John had reportedly slowed down to a pace that better matched his recent training. Makes sense to me…best wishes to the young Brit –I really wanted him to meet his goals!

I considered what it meant to be “gained on”. I didn’t like it! Not that I wish anything bad to my competitors –as I always hope we have the race of our dreams and that way we will push eat other to run our very best! I did however, do a reality check with myself. “ Am I running my potential at this point in the race?” A Big FAT no. I was very much in my comfort zone!

We were in the shade and on trails and on very mellow elevation change. I had and would have access to plenty of food and water. The only bummer I was experiencing was an abundance of pit stops due to the trots. HMMMPh! Though I hate taking the stuff, I carry Imodium and took 2 tablets at this point, 2 hours later I would follow with one more. I can’t control this issue, yet I can help make it better! I also knew that I could run less conservatively and therefore run better, so I found delight in pushing my comfort zone and going more towards “the edge”. Yippie!…another dimension to this adventure!

Before I knew it I was up and over the meadowy “Sound of Music Hill” and Howard greeted me as I arrived in aid station territory. He was encouraging and assisted me with refilling and saying I was still moving and looking fine! Yep! Thank you Howard, you rock! Amanda was there too continuing her encouragement and well wishes. I appreciate the great energy, and used it to propel me on!

I ran another loop of 3.3 miles, came through this aid station again, sucked in fuel and water and generous good wishes and bobbed along, arriving at Covered Bridge #1 filled with crazy energy of a person who was excited and nervous and at a mental place of imagining running sub 17:00 and earning her 1st national title.

At this point I had not a clue of placement of my competition, the draw of the sub -17 idea was taking shape! The next section was supposed to be torturous, so I mentally prepared myself for the likes of Short Mountain at Massanutten 100 and was happy to find, that in comparison, this was a fun section. Some muddy parts and steep ups, yet not the torture I’d read and been warned of! As I came through Covered Bridge #2, I learned I had a 56-minute lead since last time through. Cool! Yet now the run was about focus and staying as strong as possible. I longed to earn a National Champion Title, yet at the same time, wanted to find the edge of performance and run with risk and sensibility. Could I run sub 17? Or 16:30? Don’t know! Will find out!

Though I picked up my headlamp at mile 85.5 I didn’t turn it on until just after the last aid station at mile 96.3. At this point Nathan Yanko and I were sharing miles. I caught up to him at around mile 95-he was worried his wheels were falling off. I could see he was tired as I was-yet I knew his wheels were fine-and expected he’d be even better once reaching Devon (Super-fast Devon Crosby-Helms is his girlfriend and was one of his crew this day).

Nathan did recharge and I followed close behind him, catching up during the last trail section mile 97.5-100ish. We ran together. Not chatting or racing, just sharing the same pace and illumination from out lights. As we started to emerge from the “canyon” Nathan gave me the heads up that he liked the finish strong and would run very fast for the last half mile. Super cool! I encouraged him to do so! This is a race and event where we are all invited to work hard, take risks, yet also to acknowledge, appreciate and use our strengths! Go Nathan go!

We left the trails, follow cones across a bridge and down the road and with less than a ½ mile left to go, Nathan surged ahead and before long, I saw Nathan was going to overtake someone and he did!

Finishing

I followed behind, running as strong as I could, being escorted by 2 guys on mountain bikes. Free thoughts followed:

I can see the clock! I can see the numbers! I hear the music. Holy buckets the finish line is in sight….oh my there is a black tape for me to break…I have won races yet never broken a tape…run Annette run…I think I’m gonna cry: BAM! Done! Over! Tape broken with a course record time of 16:44:21! Annette is a National Champion! Wow! Oh-my-God, how on the planet did this happen?
Super cool!

I soaked up the warm congratulations and walked for 45 minutes before sitting down. After sitting down too quickly after WS100 last month and loosing blood pressure, I was not going to let that happen again! Nathan’s Mom even escorted me to my car to get my cell phone so I wouldn’t be alone. I called George and my Mom! Super exciting!

Starting Recovery

After leaving the finish line I headed back to my motel for a quick shower and then 15-minute ice bath with 20# of ice. I ate a Lean Cuisine dinner, drank ½ glass of wine and slept for 5.5 hours, after which I took another ice bath and another 1-hour nap. Rising, I walked across the parking lot and enjoyed Dunkin Donuts coffee and an egg sandwich. I wondered about John…I was a light was on in his room, yet dared not disturb him, not knowing what time he arrived back-or if the light was left on by housekeeping as mine was? After packing up, I arrived back at the finish line at 10:15am.

At the finish line I sat around emotionally cheering in 28 and 29-hour runners. I hung out with Todd Braje and Scott Dunlap as we waited for awards. During the awards ceremony, I was part of a special club-of all people limping-it seemed regardless of position finishing we all were hobbled and could laugh at ourselves. I still have not learned of what happened to John Oakley, yet will endeavor to find out!

Todd and I Sunday morning

Devon and Nathan Sunday morning

The Burning River 100 is a quality event with excellent volunteers, varied surfaces and terrain. I hope to be back one day! After awards, I drove the 7 hours home and got ready for work and a new school year the next day. Starting a school year with a face of race-induced pimples, sore legs, post 100 mile hormonal upset wasn’t ideal, yet I am privileged to have the health and resources to have made the trip and very happy (especially with budget cuts) to have a job!

Fin – Monday evening we transfered to the small town of Chatel and closer to the start of Le Tour in Morzine the next day. The mood was a little lighter Monday evening. The five of us, Topher and photographers were gone now, had a traditional French dinner. Erin and I shared a Raclette, a huge half wheel of cheese that you stick under a heat lamp and scrape huge globs of rich creamy cheese onto your plate and pair with potatoes and meat. Man that was rich. I still feel it sitting in my stomach like a rock. But it was good though.

Yellow Jersey winner Contador

Tuesday morning we drove over to the Tour start in Morzine and with some Columbia connections got a VIP entry to the village and the start line. But not before almost nailing Lance when he pulled out of a parking lot as we were driving in to park. Lance, if you read this, be more careful man. It wasn’t that close but he was right in front of the van. We were given access to the start line where they were introducing all the riders so we got some good shots and a great experience. It was pretty cool. The tour is a huge production. Miles of fencing, tents, stages, buses, team cars, helicopters, dozens of police, hundreds of volunteers and this was just the start line. And then as soon as the riders are gone, the crowds disappear in an instant, and it all comes down. Amazing to watch. We hung out at a pizza joint and watched the tour before having to get back to Geneva.

When you spend a few days together with people you get to know them pretty well, but when you throw a few people into an experience like this that tests limits, patience, and organization you get an intimate picture of your compatriots. Through time spent on the trail you can get to know someone’s personality, time spent around a dinner table you get stories and a picture of their life.  Physically demanding situations serve up an interesting social dynamic between the participants. It’s cool to watch and experience. Thursday morning I had never met these people before, now I know Brian likes trains, Lisa is closterphobic, Leslie does just about every sport known to man, Erin is cool under pressure and really likes French cheese, Topher’s switch is permanently “on” and takes the hard way, that’s just part of the experience in a trip like this.

Dinner with the gang after the Tour
Viva le Tour du Mont Blanc

Here are some gear reviews from the equipment I used while on the trip.
Fluid 10 – the fluid 10 is a small lightweight running pack that has a large central pocket, water bladder pocket, sinch cord, water bottle pockets on both sides, and waist strap pockets for gels…or a camera. This is the pack I used for the majority of the miles on the trip. It performed really well. I carried a jacket, a long sleeve shirt, food, camera and a water bottle. I was typically just carrying one water bottle because of the abundance of fresh water on the route and used the pocket on the side. With just one water bottle the pack didn’t feel lopsided like some might. I had it sinched down pretty tight and the shoulder straps were soft, comfortable and wide enough that they didn’t chafe my neck. Actually I didn’t have any chafing anywhere even wearing the pack with no shirt. Even had two of these packs on for quite a bit of the trail, just one over the other, and that worked out pretty well too. The pack is unusually spacious for it’s size. I have a camelbak I use that is similar in size but the Fluid 10 can carry more stuff. My one beef with it was trying to retrieve my water bottle without taking the pack off. It was pretty much impossible. The few times I ma

naged to get it out and back in I tweaked my shoulder out and had to take some time to work out the cramp. Not ideal. Running with it was a breeze however and there was minimal bouncing and no chafing.

Fluid waist pack – I tried to run with the new Fluid Waist Pack for a good section of the second day but it was lighter than Scott’s camera equipment so I was saddled with that for the remainder of the trail except for when we were shooting photos. During that it was great. Didn’t bounce with a full water bottle, had a few pouches for food and a mesh pocket that held a lightweight jacket easily which would be great for longer runs in the mountains where the weather is variable. I’ll probably use it for Transrockies where I want to go super lightweight but still have to carry a little water, jacket, tights, hat and gloves.
Geist – Still in love with the Geist series. The jacket is my fav. I don’t usually go anywhere without it and I even got to test it out on a stormy section of the second day. It kept me warm and dry in a light rain and felt at home under a pack without pulling and riding around under the pack. The best fitting, lightweight breathable running jacket I’ve ever tried.

Shorts – I used the lightweight Refueler Advance Short. The fabric is a nice light fabric that doesn’t inhibit movement at all, which is crucial for running. The thing I still don’t care for is the waist band. It’s comfortable but I have to tie the drawstring to keep them up. They just feel loose when I’m used to having elastic waist bands. If you can look past that, they are a great running short and have a couple little zip pockets that have come in handy for holding a gel here and there.
Shirts – I used several shirts on the trip. The wicked lite tank and tee, Elmoro zip tee, and the Singlet coming out. One thing I have to say is that the fit of all the mountain hardwear tops are spot on for me and are the best fitting most comfortable shirts I have. Why? because when I’m running I like a shirt that has a close athletic fit and doesn’t flap all over the place but at the same time I don’t want to feel like I’m being smothered by a boa constrictor.

Shoes -  Montrails of course. I did two days in the yet-to-be released Rogue Racer which performed flawlessly on all trails from buffed single track to rocky double track. At 8.5 oz I was feeling light on my feet all day. The third day I decided to give the new Badrocks a try on th

e super rugged and rocky Bovine climb. Honestly, I did it for a little extra protection because I’d been having a bit of a nerve issue in my foot and I was expecting to notice the extra weight of the shoes. I wasn’t too optimistic that I would appreciate having an extra 2 oz and a lot more shoe on my feet. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised and don’t remember even noticing which shoes I was wearing that third day. It was nice to have that bit of extra underfoot protection and flying up the last climb of the day I didn’t notice that I had a different shoe on than normal. So, good shoe, yup.

Poles – Like I said you have to have poles for racing over here. Note to self though, don’t get the ones that have anti-shock springs in them, they’re just annoying.

Lastly, I need to say thanks to everyone involved. Erin for the impeccable organization and interpreting. We would have been totally lost without her. Topher for the invite and a trail buddy along the way. Scott and Seb for the amazing camara work. And Brian, Lisa, and Leslie for the companionship along the trail and for putting up with a high maintenance athlete. You know how we are.

He survived the bad weather. He survived hypothermia at 12,000 feet. He survived taking wet nap showers at night and eating bars and gels all day for over a week. He survived quite a bit, in fact, and now he is done!

From the time of my last post, Matt ran for about 24 hours all the way to Molas Pass above Silverton. From there he took a four hour nap and got up at 8:00 in the morning to keep going, this time with Linda Barton running alongside. Durango is about 73 miles from Molas Pass, and he was determined to finish with as little downtime as possible. And he did just that, finishing about 28 hours after leaving Molas Pass. The remaining trail was broken up into three 20 ish mile sections and a 12 mile section, meaning he had to run for many hours at a time with very little support, all of this being at the final end of the trail when his energy was extremely sporadic. I really have no idea how Matt managed to keep going in the final sections; his all consuming dedication was a powerful force.

After hours of waiting and preparing, we finally went up to the Junction Creek trailhead at about noon today, and began the walk up to find Matt. We didn’t have to walk far. Within 20 minutes he came around a corner hooting at us and running a 7:30 ish mile fueled entirely by adrenaline. He looked really good, and especially so considering what he had put himself through in the past week. At 12:18 on Friday Matt Hart finished the Colorado Trail, for a total of 9 days, 7 hours and 48 minutes total, from start to finish. What an achievement! He literally ran from Denver to Durango, through the heart of the coolest mountain ranges in the state, and finished smiling and joking – just the way he started.

Since finishing he has eaten every bit of food in my house here in Durango and continues to wolf down everything within sight. How I’m going to get him to leave is beyond me, since he can’t actually move anymore, but that’s just fine because we like having him around. As for me, I’m going to go get my first full night of sleep in 9 days. Good night!

At about 5:00 am this morning Matt Hart headed up into the San Juan section of the Colorado Trail. With a little over 100 miles to go he is both fatigued and sleep deprived, and this section up above 13,000 feet promises to really tax his strength.

Yet he continues to run. He is hoping to finish the day at Molas Pass, between Silverton and Durango, for a total of 55 miles. I had to take his two wheel drive van from Spring Creek Pass on the Continental Divide all the way around to Durango today, and so I won’t see him until tonight. With him in my stead are Ben Reeves and Linda Barton, who have undertaken the giant task of what I like to call high altitude crewing. This isn’t something that can be done off the couch and even the toughest and most experienced crews have been known to falter in their tasks. Yet I am confident these two can continue to provide Matt with his essentials even at Carson Saddle and Stony Pass.
In fact, the only factor that worries us today is the weather. Even Durango is getting rained on today, and that usually means the Silverton area, and especially the high peaks and ridges above Silverton, are REALLY getting rained on. This could spell trouble both for the vehicle which has to drive steep dirt roads up to the Trail, and for Matt too since the majority of the section he is on is above timberline. I’m not exactly a scientist, but I do know that people are great conductors of electricity, and carrying two metal poles certainly won’t help matters. However, in spite of this difficulty I am confident in Matt’s ability to make safe decisions and avoid obvious danger, like a thunderstorm. Similarly, our communications are such that any problems Matt encounters will be apparent to the crew and all backup plans have been discussed. Worry not, for Matt shall endure.

As for the record, our campsite last night was about thirty miles off of Jonathan Basham’s splits. Is a record time still possible? Yes. Is it likely? Well, it’s possible. Matt is an amazing athlete who has undergone similar mental and physical strain in the past, and the camp has heard talk of a possible all night run at some point. So we’ll see. If he makes the record that will be fantastic for everyone concerned. But that was only a secondary goal even from the beginning. I may have pushed the idea of a “record attempt” on this blog to the extent that it may have seemed the only goal, but the truth is that Matt has spent a lot of time in Colorado this summer and decided after some research that a fast run on the Colorado Trail would be AWESOME, record time or not. so he’s out there, tired and hurting, but the way he feels now is inherently a part of why we love to run long distances. You might say that Matt is in his element right now. He’s also in the elements right now, traversing through the hardest and possibly coolest section on the Trail. So wish him luck!

Also – Sean Meissner should know that I am much more adept at sleeping upstairs in the Eurovan than he is, as well as living out of the van in general, as stated by Matt himself. So take that!

Day 5 – Matt is traversing through the saguache range right now, and I’m looking up at the mountains from a cafe in Buena Vista. This range just south of Leadville has the highest concentration of 14er’s in the state, with something like 14 or 15 all crammed into a few square miles. The mountains are HUGE.

Day 3 ended with Matt coming into the Mt. Massive trailhead just before midnight. I was psyched because that meant we could all get some sleep finally. But no, Captain Energy was riding high and decided to do the next section right then. So Ben and I fueled him up and then dragged our sleep deprived selves around to the next spot, above Twin Lakes. We got to sleep a little before three and then slept in until seven. Awesome.

Day 4 was painful. Matt had not had enough sleep and the mounting fatigue brought him down early in the day. He took a nap at one point, but it still wasn’t quite enough to get him going. So we decided to finish the day a little early, with slightly less than 40 miles for the day. The logic behind this was that Matt could hang out at camp a little, eat a lot and catch up on sleep. We had a lot of fun last night just lounging around with zero stress about crew points or sleep deprivation.

So now he’s on to day 5 and feeling pretty good, all things considered. He’s a little behind the desired pace but we are all confident that last nights extra rest will provide an advantage in the end. The challenge he has taken on is pretty incredible, but he is holding up amazingly well considering he’s run nearly 250 miles in the last 4.5 days. Yikes. Crewing for him is like a longer version of crewing for a 100, but being a part of this is really exciting and makes me want to do something similar myself. But not for a while. Thanks again to all the sponsors. We’re going into Salida today to pick up supply drops at the post office, courtesy of Nuun, Black Diamond and Montrail. I’ll update this again as soon as possible.