4 Days to Go ....

Early on at Jemez Mountain Trail Run 50K

With San Juan Solstice 50 Miler just days away, I figured I would write a little recap on how my training has progressed, or more how it hasn't progressed as much as I would like.

After running the marathon at the Desert Rats Trail Festival in Fruita in April, I felt pretty good and overdid it.  I tweaked my hamstring.  Heather North at Redhammer Rehab did some fine work, painful as always, but I was back running with only a few days off.  My running had gotten very consistent, averaging 50 miles a week through May.

Memorial Day weekend, I drove down to Los Alamos, NM, to camp and run the Jemez Mountain Trail Race.  This event features a 50 miler, a 50K and a 1/2 marathon.  I was running the 50K and had in my mind a goal time around 6 hours.  I would be ecstatic if I got under 6.  Over 7 would be disappointing.

Race start of 50K

Saturday: Race day was perfect.  Temps around 45 at 6am at the start, with partly cloudy sky.  I got into a nice rhythm early on, and the first 10 miles went by smoothly (minus one missed turn.  Once again, course was marked with red-orange flagging, which I don't pick up very well.)

Around mile 5

 After 10 mile aid station, is the major climb, from 8000 ft up to the top of Pajarito Mtn at 10,400 ft.  I felt like I kept a good tempo on the climb, mixing in power hiking with running in a efficient manner.   The 50 mile race started at 5 am and I began to catch the back end of that race on this climb.  This was nice as the 50K had begun to spread out and I had found myself running alone.  Now I had people to chase after.

After 10 mile aid station

This was an eerily beautiful area.  The Los Alamos region has suffered through a number of forest fires over the past decade, one of which nearly reached the town and the National Lab.  But life is coming back, so this trail climb through dead, burnt trees, mixed with green grass and young aspens.

View of burn area looking up towards Pajarito Mountain.

I missed a turn on the descent down the mountain.  Luckily, this descent was down the Pajarito Ski Resort.  I knew the next aid station was at the lodge at the bottom of the resort and the resort wasn't that big. I just needed to find the bottom. So I bushwhacked through some trees, across a ski run, and found the actual course again.  This added on maybe a 1/2 mile.

Coming into aid station at 19 miles.

I felt pretty good at this point.  The climb up to the aid station at 22 miles went okay.  At this point the 50 milers went a different direction from the 50 K, so I was once again alone.  The next stretch of 2 miles was a bit of a struggle.  It was on a wide jeep road with a steady climb.  But when it turned onto a single track trail again and began descending, I felt much better.

My major mistake of the day was to not completely re-fill/re-stock at the aid station at 25 miles.  A few miles later, I ran out of water.  I thought I only had about 3 miles left and didn't take one last gel before running out of water, thinking I could make it those last 3 miles.  I mistakenly had not checked the actual distance of the race, assuming it was 31 miles when it actually was 32.2.  And even that came with a caveat.  The organizers stated it probably is 0.3 miles to 0.5 miles longer due to one of the segments in the burn area being recently refurbished.  Along with my wrong turns, the actual distance was going to be over 33 miles.  So around mile 30, I bonked.  I was right, I had about 2-3 miles left in me, I just didn't realize at the time I would need to get through another 3 miles.  I had been trying to hold off a couple of runners on the long descent back into town, but at this point gave up and let them by.  An aid station at 1.9 miles to go was a godsend.  And I trudged to finish in 6:43:17 and in 19th place.

Overall I was happy with me effort. My watch clocked 33.5 miles which seems about right.  If I hadn't been stupid and had stopped and refilled at that aid station at 25, I don't think I would have bonked and been about 10-15 minutes faster.

Link to my GPS data for the race, including map and splits.

I would highly recommend this race to anyone.  Great course.  Perfect for me.  Fun trails without a lot of technical, rocky trails.  Post race spread was fantastic.  The race volunteers prepared a potluck New-Mexican buffet complete with taco bar.  There also were grilling green chili cheeseburgers along with plenty of beer and drinks.

This was my first time to Los Alamos.  It is an interesting town.  I really liked it many ways.  Great trails.  Bandelier National Monument is nearby along with great a National Forest area.  But because of its unique history the town is a bit curious.  Since there was no town there when the Lab was established, the town didn't evolve like a normal town.  So unlike most other towns in New Mexico there isn't a traditional town square.  There is a "downtown" area but it lacks something and over all the place is very sleepy.  Considering the recreation opportunities surrounding it, I would have expected it to be more a outdoorsy town, but there really only was one outdoor type shop.  Bathtub Row Brewing Coop was cool.  Besides it, there was really only one other pub/brewery in town.

View of Los Alamos and the National Laboratory from the hillsides above town.

Sunday: I traveled around and found an arts and crafts fair put on by the residents of the Jemez Pueblo.  Stopped by Jemez Springs.  Some cool little art studios in this very small town.  Unfortunately wasn't able to get into the hot springs.  Did very short hike to Jemez Falls.

Jemez Falls

Monday: I hiked about Bandelier National Monument.  Due to the fires, there has been some severe flash flooding along the creeks in the Monument, leaving behind huge log jams.

Log Jam along the Rito de los Frijoles

The monument contains some very cool pueblo ruins.

The sign warning about 140 vertical feet ascent made me laugh, having run 6200 vert feet two days before.

Ended the day hiking down to Upper Falls on the "Little River of Beans"

Upper Falls on the Rito de los Frijoles

Link to all my pictures from Los Alamos / Bandalier / travels through Colorado/NM

All in all it was a good weekend.  I came out of it pretty healthy and two weeks later was in Vail for the GoPro Mountains Games.  This is always one my favorite weekends of the year.  I doubled, running the Vail Pass 1/2 Marathon on Saturday and then the 10K Spring Runoff on Sunday.

I was happy with both efforts.  Ran 1:52:44 in the 1/2 marathon up Vail Pass, finishing in 24th.  In 2013, when I previously ran this race, and not coming off a 50K, I ran 1:50:04.   My 10K on Sunday was 58:46, good for 27th.   I felt tired on the initial climb, but then found my legs and really felt good the remainder of the race.  This encourages me.  I previously have run 57:18 and 57:15 on this course, once fresh and once coming off the half the day before.  Considering all I had done leading into the 10K, to run about the same as I always do here, makes me feel like I am fit.

Climb near the 3 mile mark of the 10K Spring Runoff

Splits/GPS for 1/2 Marathon

Splits/GPS for 10 K 

Of course, San Juan is a whole different animal.  As June rolled on, I felt like my fitness was just coming into perfect timing to actually train for a 50 miler.  I wish I had 3 to 4 more weeks.  One, I only have gotten in one really good weekend, with back to back long runs.  And two, with our very wet spring, I haven't gotten in anytime above 11000 feet due to the high snow pack.  It will be interesting.  I love the Lake City area.  I love the San Juan Mountains.  I am excited to run the course.  It will be beautiful.  But it will be tough.  Multiple creek crossings that will be running high and fast due to late snow melt.  And there will be large snowfields on the higher elevations that will make for some slow going.  I just don't know what to expect.  This is my first 50 miler and I picked one of the hardest ones to debut at.  This is going to be interesting.