Dick Collins Fire Trails 50 Miler

A few weeks ago I ran the Dick Collins Fire Trails 50 mile ultra marathon...

The week prior to the event I had a busy week at my job.  We were busy changing out 35mm projectors for new digital projectors.  The projector change out took a lot of hours and kept me away from training the entire week before the 50 miler.  I figured this was good since I wanted to take it easy and rest the week before the race.  The only problem was that I didn’t have anytime at all to run or cross train at all.  I also was doing what I normally do when I get stuck working long nonstop days… I ate a lot of crappy food that I shouldn’t have been eating.  I normally don’t have the cleanest diet, but this week it was really off.  From all the fast food I ate while doing the install, and I was drinking soda all day, I put on a good 4 to 5 pounds over the week.

When the Dick Collins 50 miler came around, I was feeling a little heavy, but I wasn’t feeling too bad.  I ended up having a good time at the race.  While it wasn’t my 100% best effort, I had a good time out on the trail and spent a lot of the race running with different people and socializing.  The course was at times challenging and beautiful. 

I had an awesome time at the event.  I ran with some old friends, and ran with some new ones.  My parents meet me at all the aid stations along with my 6 year old son Brandon.  When I was starting to struggle a little in the last 7 miles of the race, I started running with a fellow runner named Bill.

Bill had an interesting day out on the trail.  He was on pace for around an 8 hour finish, but early into the race Bill took a pretty bad spill and ended up having to go to the hospital.  He cut his arm pretty good, and I think he had to get somewhere around 9 stitches in his arm.  After Bill got his stitches he decided to not make his trip useless, so he got back on the course after getting several stitches in the ER, and just started running.

Bill and I started randomly talking when we come upon each other somewhere around mile 43.  He told me about his accident, how he dropped out of the race, and was just out there enjoying the rest of the day.  We ran the remainder of the trail together to the finish line.

Right before we hit the finish line my son Brandon was waiting for me, and he jumped onto the last stretch of the trail with me and we crossed the finish line together.

Sub 24

.....I'm running down a single track trail, it's foggy, and I'm getting closer to the finish line.  I run up a hill, then as I start a long rolling downhill the fog clears and I see the finish line.  My pace starts to pick up and the finish line gets closer and closer.  I can't think of what event I'm running, but I'm almost done.  I hit the finish line at max effort and hit the stop button on my Garmin. 

I hear someones voice shout out, "good job, silver buckle!!" 

"A buckle?" I think to myself.  I realize that I just finished a 100 mile race, and I'm guessing it was under 24 hours since I'm getting a silver buckle.  For some reason this feels familiar, but I can't figure out why everything feels so strange.

Then I hear a loud Russian voice from behind me. 

They tell me, "Good job!!  I guess you took my advice!!  Here's your buckle."

"What the FUCK!??!!?!" I turn around and see Michael.

Michael shacks my hand and hands me my buckle.  He sees the confused look on my face.  He asks me if I'm O.K. and tells me I should sit down and get something to eat.

I tell him I'm fine and I just keep looking at him.  My mind starts racing.  None of this makes sense.  What the hell is going on?

Then it hits me... and I ask him, "I'm dreaming... right?"

He laughs and shrugs his shoulders.

Michael grabs a hydration backpack, puts it on, and runs up the single track I just came running down.  It's still foggy at the top of the hill, and before gets out of sight he stops and turns around.  He yells down to me, "Don't be upset, I'm O.K.  Good job on the sub 24, I knew you could do it!!!!"  Then he ran off up the hill into the fog...

...My alarm clock goes off, I get out of bed, and get my running gear.  I get ready to meet Kyle at the running store to help out with the half marathon training group...


The last conversation I had with Michael was about how I missed hitting sub 24 hours at the Rocky Road 100 event last February of this year. I was on pace until mile 91, and then it all just fell apart.  Michael told me that next time I'm that close to hitting my goal, with only 9 miles left, that I better muscle through the pain and go for it.

After he passed away I ran a 100 mile race just a couple weeks later.  I thought about Michael the entire run.  I wasn't feeling very good at the end of the race.  At mile 91 I was on the side of the road throwing up and my friend Leigh passed me.  Her pacer asked me, "besides the throwing up, are you ok?"  I gave her a thumbs up.  Then she told me, "you're still on pace to hit sub 24... you got this!!!"

Then I thought to myself, "mile 91... I promised Michael that next time I was close to a goal, especially with only 9 miles left, that I wouldn't give up."

At this point into the race it was early in the morning and still dark out.  I looked up and saw 2 shooting stars.  I pointed at the sky where I saw the 2 shooting stars and said out loud, "These next 9 miles are for you buddy!!!"  I muscled out the last 9 miles and finished the race before the sun came up at 5:50am (23 hours 50 mins ).  My first sub 24 hour 100 mile race. 

10k Race

I decided at the last minute to run a 10k in downtown Fresno today.  I ended up coming in 20th overall and 3rd in my age group.

Training Plans

Tonight's training run didn't start off on a good note.  I wanted to run 60 mins of hill repeats, and 15 mins into my workout I was feeling pretty good, but 30 mins into my hill repeats I decided the workout wasn't going in the right direction. 

It appeared to me that I really wasn't having any fun.  I know that not every workout is going to be fun, and most of my training runs are hard and difficult.  Since I was starting to feel like I wasn't really being productive in my workout, I decided to call it quits with the hill repeats and go do something else.

I recently took my son Brandon (age 6) and daughter Ashley (age 4) running at Woodward Park.  I do most of my training there, and this is where I was doing my hill repeats tonight.  I thought about how much fun my kids had running on the trails in the back of the park and I remembered that I specifically took them running on those trails because they're fun.

I decided to ditch the hill repeats and run, in what daylight was left, the trails in the back of the park.  I reset my Garmin and started a new workout.  I was set on making the second half of my workout fun.  For the next 30 mins I would have no real path set, no workout planned, no pace planned, and no real goal... except to have fun.

...and I had a ton of fun for the second half of my run. 

I ran for about 30 mins in the back of the park. I hit what limited single track trail we have at Woodward Park.  One thing I made sure not to do was look at my watch.  At this time I didn't want to keep track of my pace, distance, or really even time.  The goal was just to run around and take it easy when I wanted to, and run hard when I randomly felt like it.  Just a few seconds into my new run I felt so much better, mentally and physically.

One of the many lessons I've learned from running is that I can't be afraid to change my plans on the fly.  While it's good to go out with a training plan, or path planned... it's also important to let yourself deviate from the plan when the plan is going horribly wrong. 

One of the things that I feel is important to figure out, is telling the difference between hitting a rough patch that I just need to muscle through, and hitting a point where I seriously have to evaluate if I'm doing more harm than good by continuing my workout.  During tonight's hill workout I definitely feel like I was doing more physical and mental harm than good.

I'm happy that I've learned to let my ego go, and not be afraid to change things up when I have to.