Various Pikes thoughts

In no particular order …

(pic via Mike Everson on FB).

1.) Splits …
Ruxton:  3:09
Hydro:  6:50 (9:58)
Top of W’s: 24:47 (34:44)
No Name Creek: 17:13 (51:57)
7.8 Sign: 17:40 (69:37)
Barr Camp: 19:35 (89:12)
Bottomless Pit: 14:38 (1:43:50)
A Frame: 26:03 (2:09:52)
2 to go: 19:45 (2:29:37)
1 to go:  17:45 (2:46:51)
Summit: 21:40 (3:08:32)
Back to Aframe: 32:32 (3:41:04)
Aframe to Bar Camp:  21:05 (4:02:09)
Barr Camp to finish: 52:30 (4:54:40)

My splits over the years.  Sort of fun to see how the years have played out, and in particular how this year managed over last year, particularly after Barr Camp.

2.) Several times during the climb, particularly above treeline, I could see how the race was one of will up there.  If I had to explain this race, it is three races:  the climb to Barr Camp, the climb after that, and the descent.  Of course fitness is the prevailing factor in how you perform on any of these, but within that, the ability to manage yourself is significant.  In the climb to BC, it is about restraint.  You have to not necessarily hold back but be restrained in your effort so that you can have something to go to after that.  It takes the will of discipline to act in this way.

Once above Barr Camp, even if you held back to it, it is hard to run.  The cumulative fatigue of climbing that distance weighs on you along with the altitude, and the general discouragement of how slow you are going.  You see little difference between walking speed and running speed.  But there is a difference and you must have to the will to get back to the run. 

I saw this often.  I’d walk and not want to run.  I get to the run and could only go ten steps before I’d want to walk again.  Could I have the will to run another step before I walked? ?  Could I get back to a run after three steps?  Two?  Crap, that rock step up is forcing me to walk.  And on it goes.

And then the down.  It is a willful act there too.  There is nothing glamorous about this.  You drop, drop drop and while you can enjoy gravity for the first few miles, the cumulative effect of having already run for 2-4 hours quickly catches up.  You hit No Name Creek and the temperature changes.  You want to be done.  Probably on every other run I ‘d be on under those conditions would have me stop at the creek and soak and enjoy some downtime before slogging down the rest of the hill.  But no, you must have the will to keep the push.

I could see my will in this race, and where it faltered, where it carried through.  The faltering is more fascinating to me of course.

3.) Damn my arms hurt today.  This race is one of the few that does that.  I imagine it is because of tension I carry in my upper body on the down.  Not a big deal in a five mile race but clearly hits me on a 13 mile OMG down.

Of course a lot of other stuff hurts too.  Butt, legs, lower back, abs.  I sort of expect that.  But I almost always forget the arms.

4.) Just past Barr Camp, I caught sight of a guy on the long flattish (and sometimes painfully uphill) stretches to Bob’s Road.  Within a second I knew it was Jeff.  I can honestly say there is no victory for me in seeing this.  True, Jeff is a competitor, but more he is a friend.  This guy cleans my clock on every other run I do with him and so when I see him falter like this it drives me a bit crazy.  The guy is way more the mountain runner than me.  It almost feels a bit sinful to catch him on the down after he trashes me on the up.  I tried to urge him on, but I knew where he was in his mindset at that point (because I have been there too), and my words, while appreciated would do little to help. 

This man falls into that small group we tend to have in our running circles:  he is a brother that you have shared miles with, sweat, laughs and a lot of crude jokes with.  There is little victory felt when you go by them because can intimately relate to what they are going through.

He will probably seer this and talk this all down, and be humble, but I know what this mountain and this race mean to him.  I still see him having the day that is aligned with his abilities yet to come.

5.) Wes T before the race (who ran the Ascent) told me he put the over / under bet number of downhill guys who pass me at 0.5.  If you don’t know what that means, you need to work on your Las Vegas odds.  I was passed by one (he finished the next place in front of me).  I passed four (I think … could be three but I think I passed one guy who was not moving at some point above Barr because he had taken a seat on a rock to barf).

6.) My descent was 1:46.  Not my greatest, but not bad given my fitness.  When I got to the top in 3:08, I took about a minute to compose myself, drink and take in some calories.  I did the quick math and figured a 55 to Barr Camp and then 55 down from there would land me a sub 5, which suddenly sounded a helluva lot better than one north of that.  Pic from Bethany G via FB

But it was clear once I got going, this was not going to be a “no brainer” of a task.  I was struggling to move well through those rocks.  I was plagued both by the shooting cramps from the back of the knee into the quads (around the leg) as I took weird steps, and a general lack of being able to move well over this stuff.  I could visualize the races of the past where I seemed to float this stuff (and I could see Senovia doing that as well as the guy who passed me) and wondered where that had gone.  And this year I felt mildly annoyed by the people.  They seemed to be more in the way (I am sure I was in their way too), versus being able to slick by them with no issue. 

Once I got past A frame and then into some of the more buffed sections of the trail below Barr Camp, I was able to move okay (still cramping occasionally) but I clearly have lost some ability to move over the rockier stuff okay.  It probably was the difference between a 1:46 drop and a 1:40 one.

7.) Pickles:  okay so at Barr Camp on the way up I could feel the cramps.  I am fairly convinced after years of dealing with this the cramps are a function of:  the muscle and connective tissue not being adequately prepared to run this far for this long with this much vertical, and that … well, I am a bit susceptible to them.  That said I have heard that some studies have found pickle juice can alleviate this, even if it is a placebo.  At Barr Camp they had dills slice up.  I took a few, shoved one between my cheek and gum and held the rest in my gloved hands and … well, sucked pickle. 

I am not sure it helped or not.  It sure didn’t hurt.  I did the same on the down.  I still had some cramps but they could have been worse.  

8.) As I mentioned in the post race post – I had no real goals coming into this event other than to run hard, and to have fun. 
Pic from Pikes Peaks Sports … probably one of the most relaxed starts I have ever encountered.  Yapping with JV.
the gun went off, I could see how that was already evolving.  I had to calm myself, reset myself and tell myself that what happened to the road to Ruxton meant NOTHING.  It is amazing how I felt I was half jogging there and we still got there in 7 minute pace.  I was probably in 40th place at that point.

Pics from the Gazette
 
As the race played out, the goals and mindset evolved from, okay – relax and be calm there is a lot of racing to do.  It is okay to walk this part to get your breath back (I purposely did this on the steep part of the road above the Cog and on several parts of the Ws).  Can you stay with Anita and that group of guys with her? No I guess not.  Here’s Jim can you stay with him?  No, I guess not.  Wait, he is coming back.  He’ll get you on the steeper stuff later.  Pic from Nancy Hobbs via twitter.

Hey Anita is coming back, hmm Barr Camp in 90, maybe I can go sub 3:20 on the climb?  Wow, once we are above treeline you can see that there are a bunch of us pretty close.  Maybe sub 3:15, okay that was A frame in 40 more minutes, can I get up to the summit in under an hour?  Hey there is Brett, can I get him?  How is that guy walking away from?  Senovio Torres – that guy is a legend, take the time to be quick but appropriate with nutrition and hydration, can it be sub 3:10?  Pic from Bethany G via FB

Okay 3:08, can I get a sub 5 on the round trip?  55 to the camp and then 55 below that – should be easy, right?  Well maybe not.  These rocks suck, and these people are killing me.  Relax – you don’t have to get it all here.  Cramping for sure.  Okay, 33 to the Aframe – not great, can I get to Barr Camp in 22 minutes?  Probably not.  Wait, I can.  54 to Barr Camp, okay it is going to be an effort but you can get sub 5.  I am pretty sure these mile signs are completely wrong.  I have passed a few guys but I can hear folks behind me.  Okay, don’t eff this up in the Ws.  This road is the longest thing ever every flippin year.  Be positive, keep solid.  How about sub 4:55?  Whew.  Damn this race is hard.

Pic from Pikes Peak Sports

How’s that?

9.) At the last burro race in BV, Justin asked me if I’d break 5.  I told him, “umm, I am not sure.”  It was good to call on that as a wee bit of motivation on some of the descent.

10.)  Before the race, I was asked by Mark L as to how runable the course is.  Here is the reality:  it is 99% runable.  There may be a steps in the Golden Stairs that are not, but it is all runable.  I come to that conclusion this way:  If I could magically transport you to any part of the course and say, run this next 100 meters – you could do it (at least most of the folks who read this blog could).  The issue is not whether a section is outright runable.  The issue is if you are ABLE to run.  There will be a lot of places where you can’t or won’t or don’t because of the cumulative fatigue the course dishes up to you.  But there are no sections that are like some 40% grade or class 4 climbs.  So it is runable.  It is not easy however.

11.)  I made a decision to spend a fair amount of time at the aid stations taking in fluids and nutrients.  I even took a couple of swings at Captain America’s shield at the first aid station. I brought nothing but two gels stuffed in my gloves as emergency rations.  No water bottle, nothing else.  I just can’t bring myself to do one of those vests for this race yet.  In fact, I went shirtless (it was that warm – probably 55 plus near the top).  Worst case I was 30 minutes between aid stations.  So I spent probably 2-3 minutes total going through aid stations (with near a minute at the top), sometimes gulping 4 cups of water, getting a refill, slamming some grapes or pickles or something.  I guess I could have saved some time if I had brought some of that stuff, but I am not sure how much.

11.) This concludes four Sundays of racing over the last four weeks.  It is a pretty epic set of Sundays for me.  Two burro race wins, a shot at the Triple Crown, and then coming up short and my favorite race Pikes.  I did the quick math and that means about 88 miles of racing, and 16 something hours of it.  Meaning that Krar still finishes ahead of me in doing a 100 in one shot. 

Still, probably a time for a break of sorts.

12.) Lauenstein kept the Marathon respectable, even though the Ascent “stole” most of the talent.  Not taking anything away from his performance, or Delaney’s double, or Ortiz’s win at the age of 50, but the front end of the marathon fields were pretty thin.   2 guys under four is pretty light and a women’s win in over 5 is comparatively soft.  Again – don’t take that the wrong way – a win is a win is a win. 

Nichols was a no show and a good number of the women expected did not show either.  I get it – there are a lot of races vying for folks attention, and this is just another one. 

It did leave me wondering where Carpenter would have placed had he shown up.  I have absolutely no insight to put this on, but I think it is a sure bet he’d be top 5, and probably top 3 – and maybe even second.  I am not sure he’d dance under 3:40 anymore, but we won’t know this year.  I still expect to see him next year going after an AG record.  Pic from the Gazette.

13.) I found a Dunkin Donuts on the south end of Colorado Ave going from Manitou into the Springs.  Opened 24 hours.  Sweet.  Prerace breakfast at 4:30 AM was an extra large hazelnut and an apple fritter.  Game on.

14.)

It was nice to land one of these … but … I have ranted on this one before:  arguably the 40-44 age group trophies are one of the easiest to nab.  Here’s why:  if you are a Master in the top ten, you don’t get included in the age group awards.  If you are a Master but don’t make the top ten, you then are in the mix for the top five Master awards, but are also not included in the age group awards. 

The guys competing for those spots (top 10 and Masters) are occasionally folks over 44, but typically it is your 40-44 types.  It means that generally the winner of the 40-44 AG award was at least the 7th or 8th master in the mix.

So, I will take the award home and it will go with the other awards.  It will be nice to look at, particularly some day when I may have to compete against these guys when I am 60 and I can’t get the award for that AG.   Still, it is important to know where it sits in the scheme of things.  Pic from Don Solberg.

15.)  JTs house – he was very kind once again to let me crash at his place.  His place is sort of a running mecca.  I love it. 

16.)  I wore the same gloves I typically do (and the ones I wear for burro racing).  I took spills on the up and the down, but was able to catch myself in each case with the gloves so that there was no damage.

17.) 
 
(pic from Nancy Hobbs via Twitter) - Yes, that is the women’s winner, Anita Ortiz.  See the feet on the chair behind her.  Yes, that is me with my feet up on the chair, my back on the ground.  I do this every year to “reverse” my blood pressure (ever since I nearly passed out in 2007 at the finish).  Best part was my head was 12 inches from traffic on the other side of that tent, and directly next to a trash can.

Okay, I did manage to get up and chat a bit with Anita.  Anita passed me in probably the fifth or sixth W and floated away with a pack of three other guys with ease that was fairly disturbing at the time.  It did leave me wondering if I had gone out over my head.  As the trail flattened out a bit above No Name Creek, these guys began to come back, then I passed them and then I saw Anita just below Barr Camp.  I entered Barr Camp just ahead of her, but she went through a bit more quickly.  She let me pass as we got back to work, but was on my heels for most of the climb.  It was only on the long stretch of beach between the 2 and 1 to go sign that I was able to put some daylight between me and her.  By the way, this is the section where Senovio passed both of us.
Pic from Nancy Hobbs via Twitter.  I call the shot beauty and the beat.  Nice lady.  She apparently had some issues in the heat and left her stomach on Pikes.

18.)  I love that former winners and legends Steve Gachipin and Arlene Piper make it to this event each year now.  I stopped to talk to them in the med tent, and then snapped this shot on the way up to collect the AG award.

19.)  Senovio Torres crushed the downhill in this race and along the way, took Verne Carlson’s age group record (I know Verne from the BRR).  Senovio is SIXTY.  Senovio reached the summit just before me and sat to retie his shoes as I grabbed a drink and a bite.  He then floated down the hill in 1:40. Pic from the Gazette.

20.)  This post would not be complete without some contemplation about what I did this year compared to last year.  Last year I was focused, well trained and ran close to half an hour slower.  This year I had little time at altitude, lacked big climbs or long runs, and was more likely to do quarters for a workout than a session on Green. 

There can be a lot of arm chair analysis on that.  For me, it comes down to a couple of key points.

First – sometimes you have a bad day.  There were no lack of folks out there who trained there ass off and had a bad day.  It happens.  It happens to EVERYONE at some point.  Yes, even the champions – I don’t care who you are, you have them.  They might be better at minimizing them but they happen. 

Last year, I had a bad day.  To top it, I did not recognize it and take appropriate action to mitigate it to some extent.  It still would have been a less than expected performance, but hypothetically, I could have moved the needle on it a bit in the positive had I embraced it.  Instead I fought it and, well, I lost.

So the million dollar question is why do we have these days?  I dunno.  You pick.  Diet, sleep, life stress, over training, under training, the alignment of the stars, thinking too hard about your event, or your shoes are tied too tight.  You can work on this stuff to mitigate and minimize them, but they can still happen.

Second – and long time readers already know this: I do better when I am less hyper focused for an event than when I am.  This was a conscious choice last year.  I know when I approach event without burdening myself with a result or some desired goal, and go into it free of expectations, I tend to over achieve.  The opposite is true when I go in dialed in.  Not every time, but enough times to say that there is clearly a pattern there.  This is exactly why I made that choice last year.  I wanted to see if I could point to Pikes and make it happen.  It didn’t.  It did this year.  It might be good for me to stop fighting that grain in my life.

Of course my thought turn to what could have happened this year had I done a few Greens?  Or Okay, next year I am gonna … I am cool with those thoughts floating through for now, but I will weigh them a bit more carefully before shoving all my chips in.   Heck, a lot can happen in a year and I don’t even know if I will make it to the line.

And it has been a helluva summer without the crazy training focus.  Backpacking with the boy and his buds, supporting my bride and daughter on theirs, burro racing, some mile races, some cool trips for work.  I am a lucky dude and that would not have changed had I run 10 hours yesterday.

Truly, basic consistency over the years, months, weeks and days what I was able to call on yesterday.  While did not have the specific elements of training, the basic left right repeat I do more days than not gave me some leverage yesterday  Having now raced the marathon 8 times helped too.

21.)  I love this weekend.  And the day after.  There is this crash of events for folks.  Leadville, Transrockies, school starting, the end of summer, Pikes, and even Warrior Dashes. 

I love the stories of success, failure, overcoming or not, silliness … all this self imposed escape we put on ourselves to step away from the noise and nastiness of other things in life.  I am borderline useless today in catching up on stories, blogs, photos, results, etc.  Best Leadville photos I have seen yet.  Justin has good weekend coverage.

22.)  Various pics I grabbed (not a lot)
The view from the awards podium Pretty cool kid
Top ten men
Folks soaking in the creek post run
Scotty Dunlap finishing
This section … it is harder than it looks.

23.)  The Carpenter Calculator:  no I did not run Matt’s suggested splits.  I had no plan for splits so I did not even check them.  But it is interesting so see where I landed (first point in the post) what he proposes.


Matt would have me get to Ruxton a full minute slower than I did, and almost 2 minutes slower to Hydro.  I can say that given my training (flat, faster versus up) that was not going to happen – I had to base my effort off of how I trained.  Hence, I was way off on the climbing splits, and taking advantage of the flatter splits where I was more in the zone I had prepared at.

In other words, I am not saying Matt’s calculator is wrong or right.  I am saying you should consider making adjustments if you use it based on the training you have done (his page with the calculator essentially says this).

24.)  It is great at this event to catch up with folks you know well, but get to know some new ones.  I really find that to be a heck of a lot more fun than the event itself, but of course it does not happen without the event. 

I realize I set myself up for this, but I am a bit taken back when someone mentions something specific from the blog.  Sometimes it is something I have written a while ago, and I have sort of forgotten it, but that person has taken it as something for them.  I am not sure if I should be pleased, freaked out, shut the blog down, or write more in that moment (and ultimately I just keep doing this thing anyway). 

25.) Want further evidence that GPS watches lie?  We all ran the SAME course yesterday:

So that is FIVE results, each with a completely different distance from 24.8 to 26 miles.

26.)  The mile signs on the way up.  I think they are “generally” right.  I am less convinced they mean much on the way down except as arbitrary markers of 1 mile (apart).  I can’t see how a sign on the way up that says “10 miles to the Summit” on one side can say “3 miles to the finish” on the other side and be correect – since the finish is about 1 mile away from the start.  I think the distances you see on the way down have to be advertising a bit longer than you actually have to go.

27.)  None that I expect to buy because I am not sure anyone wants to have a photo of a guy in a built in sweater, but here are the marathonfotos.  Some fair suffering in this one:

28.)  if this geeking out over analysis has not been enough for you, cruise over to the results database that, yes – Matt Carpenter – built.  It is places there where you can build queries to show people that you are not REALLY a good downhiller.

29.)  I have mentioned this before:  Pikes is a riddle of FIVE elements:  it is a long run, it includes an up component, it includes a down component, but it is not so steep that it is only a climb – you need speed.  And then there is the altitude.

On Sunday, I realized the obvious and there is a sixth component.  The weather. Or everything else I guess.  All that stuff you can’t control.  In 2008, the weather was an issue with snow.  This year it was hot.  Enough so that I did not need to wear a shirt at all (other than the built in one I have).  But yeah, the weather can impact the race.  Typically I hit No Name Creek on the way up and I can feel a subtle five or so degree drop in the temperature.  And then down, it seems to pick up ten degrees on days like this.  The only solace you have when you hit that heat is knowing you only have to deal with it for about a half an hour or so (at my pace yesterday).

… and now, back to regularly scheduled programming.

20 minutes, 10 out, 10 back today, along the canal.  Just flushing some of the crud out via movement.  Seriously, feels way better than just sitting.