Dizzy Goat 2104

Last year, Dana and I journeyed to Nebraska to run a timed event called the Dizzy Goat. Runners had a choice of running three hours, six hours, or 12 hours. Dana chose three and I chose 12, and our work was cut out. We had so much fun that we were back this year for another round.

It's a seven hour drive, and we rolled into Omaha just before 6:00 pm, picked up our packets, and met some of our Kansas friends for a bite to eat. A HUGE storm invaded Omaha just as we were checking into our motel, and we waited it out while our car was rocked by the wind. Omaha had been rained on all week, and flood warnings were in place. Friends on Facebook wished us "happy swimming". But I knew that the race course at Schramm State Park (20 miles SW of Omaha) was actually on the side of a hill with only the start/finish on flood prone ground. Turns out, the heavy rain was not enough to cause any standing water at Schramm.

The race course was a figure "8" loop of 3.25 miles, and each lap was ran in the opposite direction. My race started at 7:00 am, the 6 hour (which Dana was doing this year) started at 1:00, and the three hour started at 4:00 pm. This allowed all races to end at the same time. While a few 12 hour runners called it a day after a few laps, this infused a new wave of runners in two different waves during the day.

RD Scott Giddings is a man of many talents. He always seemed to have a smile and a few words for all of his friends, and I think he considers everyone a friend. I know how busy he must have been, but he made time to visit with most everybody. Myself--I'm usually a gripy RD on race day.

We checked in before the race, and were given a pink bracelet, which signified whether we were on an odd or even loop. After each loop, everyone got a different colored bracelet that told course marshals which way they should be running. This worked flawlessly--I never heard of anyone going the wrong way.

I wandered around before the race chatting with friends old and new (most were new friends.) It was super humid, and the forecast had mentioned a good round of storms, so I was considering not even bringing my phone or camera. I decided on bringing my iPhone in a baggie.

The start/finish aid station was stocked to the max. I surveyed the offerings and saw that they had everything I would ever need--and more. The usual fare, with added bonuses of watermelon and pickles. My favorite aid station concoction lately is an Oreo cookie with a pickle slice. Rocket fuel!!

But wait!! There was more!! Another table had dozens of cupcakes (which were Delicious) and later had several pies, amazing "death by chocolate" cookies, and believe it or not--baklava!!! I made an amazing discovery that two of these cookies propelled me exactly 3.25 miles which was perfect because that landed me right back in front of this table!!

We started right on time at 7:00 am. I was in the middle of the pack, but adjusted my position to near the back. I wanted to just run how I felt. and right now I was just trying to find a pace that felt good--and hopefully that would have a bit of forward progress. It worked out and the 12 hours of shuffling had began.

The GOATz (Greater Omaha Area Trailrunnerz) run at Schramm Park a lot, and they have cleanup days and do trail work on a regular basis. They had spent a day a few weeks back putting down chat on the trail to help with erosion. This chat kept 99% of the route from being a muddy mess. Despite the barrage of rainfall, almost all of the way could be run with clean shoes--not that that matter much to a trail runner! (Notice I said 99%, and almost all of the way--more on that later.)

Some people might ask is it gets boring running the same loop over and over again. To me--no. I run without music, and usually run alone and I never get bored. Running each loop in opposite directions means you see your friends and competitors all day long. I uttered "good job, good work, way to go, looking good, woo hoo, nice pace" hundreds of times. As I got tired, it turned into more of a jumbled slur "way to job, looking swerk, nice good." But I fed off of these hundreds of words of encouragement. I made myself TRY to look good when a possible "looking good" was coming.

The course had several landmarks. The turn into the woods, the top of the first climb, the aid station, the archery range, the three bridges, the stairway, and "What the Hill?" (More on that later.) It was just a short segment after another. All day long. Call me a simpleton but it never got old.

The Motivation Station was at the intersection of the figure 8. We hit it at 1 mile, and again about a mile or so later. That put us about a mile and a half from the start/finish. I never drained a water bottle even though the temps got up to 92°.

Just before hitting Motivation Station the second time we came to a little jeep road that connected us back into the figure 8. This little used path did not get the benefits of a gravel coating, and being a but troughed out, it was a mud slalom. Nice clay based slick shoe sucking slip sliding slush mud. Any momentum you had stopped here. Some runners took it upon themselves to make their own trial through the weeds and trees. There was nothing in the rules that prohibited this, and since I am no fan of mud, I finally after 4 laps, did this.

As sticky as this mud was, I did not want to end up like this runner. This mud would have glued my heavy arse down. I might still be there to this day had I fallen.

Scratching my way around the corner, was Motivation Station. Workers there offered encouragement, water, laughs, photo opportunities, and Di and I had a sexy leg rematch. Her words--"Legs (Ken) and I have a rematch. He tried to have a leg up on his competition. Troy didn't even bother to give an effort. I'll call this a tie between Ken and I based upon his creativity." There you have it--I tied in a sexy leg contest!!

Leaving the mud slalom meant 5 pounds of contact cement of your soles which gathered gravel with every step. The roots and trees for the following 11/4 mile were coated with scraped off mud.

All day lap after lap, it was encouragement and high fives from friends. It was hard to tell who was ahead or behind you, other than the super speedy dudes and chicks. The awesome thing about trail runners is that even the leaders and elites have an encouraging word. Near the end of the loop was a super steep descent that was an ascent every other loop.( More on that later.)

Once off the steep descent we ran by some old fish hatchery ponds. Strangely enough, I briefly got off course here twice--not that is was not marked adequately. I was just putting my head down and shuffling and made a wrong turn. Cost me about 50 yards of extra mileage. BONUS! :-) The sun came out around 11:00 and the heat began to rise. This section was all in the sun, as well as a 1/4 mile of pavement to the finish line.

Back to the start--and the buffet of food. I had brought a few GUs which I rarely use, but I had no need for them at this race. I feasted on cup cakes and watermelon and headed out for another loop. My buddy Larry Kelley had me a swig of beer ready after every lap. A small cup--a couple of drinks is perfect, and that was also perfect for him because he polished off the remainder each time. Not a man to waste half a beer. They also had a mister and a tub of ice water with wipe towels. I rarely use these, but after my 10th loop, I was pretty warm. Larry iced me down and put me back in tip top shape.

My lap pace slowed down a minute or so every lap for the first 6. Dana's race started at 1:00 and I thought I would be going at the opposite direction, but it turned out that I actually could run with her if I took about a 10 minute break after lap 6 which I did. She and I took off at 1:00 and she ran well, actually leaving me behind in a section or two. Her second lap went UP "what the Hill?", and it sucked the energy right out of her. She still found her run but the heat was wearing on her. I talked her into a third loop, and it was a bit slower yet. She decided to call it a day after 3 loops, which with the heat and the uphill on the next loop--a good idea.

Now about the "What the Hill?" This was a paved but narrow road that ascended or descended ~125 feet, according to the locals. I will say that I question that. That may be right, but it seemed further and steeper every time. I can run LipBuster repeats here at Turkey Mountain which has around 130 feet of climb (from where the starting line of our race was) in 1/4 of a mile. This "What the Hill?" is also 1/4 of a mile, and MapMyRun shows to be 125 feet. If you count the small amount of ascent once it enters the single track trail, it's around 147 feet.

Blame it on fatigue, the heat, or the mystique, but this hill is a beast.

Halfway up, there is a tree growing out of the road. More than once, I grabbed this tree, held on, and gasped for air.

My buddy Jason told me after my 9th lap that I had to get in 12 laps in order to get a medal. YIKES. That was theoretically possible, but I had no cushion and needed to pick up the pace to insure I reached cutoff. The direction of loop 10 meant going UP "What the Hill?" WOW. I was baked by the time I reached the top, but I made myself settle right into a jog. I ran that loop in 58 minutes, and needed some help cooling down. Thank you, Larry. I hoped I had bought enough minutes that I could make it. The next loop, including my cool-down time, was 1:04. The rules allowed you to go out on one more loop if you finished by 6:30 pm, which I did with 6 minutes to spare. RD Scott Giddings told me I'd need to finish that last loop by 7:30 though, and I knew I had my work cut out.

I had to climb the awful hill, but I made myself run the last little bit of it. My legs were wobbly, but I made them jog. Surprisingly, there were still a lot of runners on the course doing just what I was doing--trying to tack on some more miles. The shadows were getting longer and it seemed to cool down ever so slightly in the dense woods.

I even felt a breeze fading it's way through the trees. Someone I found some run that I did not know I had. Running the course in this direction seems to have more gradual downhill, and I focused on stretching my stride out about half a foot-length, I thought about speeding up my leg turnover and might have actually done so.

Blazing speed?? Well, it seemed fast to me at the time.

I was in a real footrace at the end. Someone was closing in on me--not that it should have mattered--but I gave it all I had, and she passed me. No shame in being chicked, especially when they're less than half my age! I did that last lap in 58 minutes. While it seemed like my fastest loop, my early loops were quicker. Still, I had to dig to get there, and was proud of getting it dome. Last year, I got 13 laps done an less than 12 hours. This years 12 were in 12:23ish. Coming off knee surgery a couple months back--I'm thrilled.

I took a few pictures early on, but most of these are borrowed from the GOATZ page on Facebook. Colleen Duda (left) and Di Liska (right) took a bunch of them. They are fun volunteers and were at Motivation Station for much of the day. Deb Bahr and Brenda Orr also took a few of the ones above--I'm just not sure which ones. Thanks for sharing.

Jason Dinkel provided this course elevation profile. It resembles a crosscut saw blade, or a row of shark teeth. My legs ache just looking at it.

5 mile dayz

Lately all I have felt like doing is 5 milers at Turkey. I dream of running 20-25 milers on awesome trailz I've never been to, finding new wonderlands within an hours drive of me--but I have just been to lazy and unmotivated to go.

Five miles is better than no miles though. Stack a few 5 milers in a week, and a 20 mile week is decent enough training to maintain whatever meager flicker of endurance I might have. The upward heat (yeck!) and the unexpected rains (yeah!) result in sickening humidity (bletchch!!) That explains a lot. Picture taking has been decent though. 

There's often something new to see on the trail. A new teepee just down-creek from Pepsi Lake. Not sure if someone lives there--and what an awful place to put it. Not far from there, I found something that might seem out of place, but to trail runners--they know EXACTLY what this is. 

Ya best not pick it up!!

I guess I can call my slump a taper--again. I do have Dizzy Goat coming up in two weeks.

Battle of the Bull Thistle

I am no master lawnscaper. My yard gets mowed every two weeks +/-, and I have been guilty of cutting it super low so I don't have to cut it as often. The drought we have been enduring the past couple of years actually is a good thing to me--as I don;t have to mow enough.

But while mowing is not my favorite thing to do, I do like the yard to look presentable. I don;'t want to have the worse looking yard on the block, or the next to the worst. Maybe the third worse is ok though. 

Lately--this year in particular, I have had a weed cropping up all over my yard.It's spreading from the field behind me via blowing seeds. The Bull Thistle.

Just one or two of these would not be worrisome--I'd mow these suckers down and forget about them. But these are spreading like wildfire. A few weeks ago when the grass was just turning green, I'd say there were maybe 20 sprouts here and there in my back yard. AT last count, there were well over 200. It's hard to count them--like counting stars at night. You lose count. The more I counted, the more I wanted to eradicate my yard of these pests.

These particular specimens lay pretty close to the ground, and the mower sometimes misses them all together. So, I fired up my trusty weed eater and buzz-sawed these suckers down to a nub. Take that, you SOBs!

Two weeks later, they were back with a vengeance.

Besides looking bad, the spiny thorns make barefoot walking a dangerous activity. 

I tried pulling one of these plants and believe me--these spikes feel not so good. I am certain that once these spikes have pierced your skin, a microscopic enzyme is injected which causes a gradual mutation into a Jeff Goldblum version of a fly creature.

After some research (God bless you, Google), I found that these plants are biennials. They have a two year cycle. The first year, they are in the crab-like state as pictured above. After the second year, they grow into stalks, forming buds and a strikingly attractive magenta flower. These suckers have been trespassing for two years now.

This is where the seeds are, and they are spread by wind, birds, and when someone (like me) walks by they shoot poison darts. I had a few of these lethal dart launching plants in my yard (even in my front yard now!) It was time for me to step things up. This was getting personal.

Lowe's to the rescue. I browsed the lawn and garden section for the best yet cheapest spray to massacre this tribe of man eating plants. I settles on a 1.33 gallon jug of Round-Up which was designed for problem weeds, and poison ivy. Bonus! It came with an adjustable wand which touted a 10 minute spray time. I was in business!!

I started in the front yard and sprayed unmercifully every one of these noxious nuisances, being careful to get every drop right down the plant's throat. They seemed to soak it up like they enjoyed it. I listed closely for coughing/choking sounds, but heard none. After 10 minutes, my arm was about to fall off from lugging around what seemed like a 50 gallon jug of  pesticide.

Halfway through my back yard, the jug started getting lighter, and poof--I was out of the juice. Well, I was bummed about having to spend another 29.95 + tax for another jug, so I returned to Google. Maybe I could find another remedy. One suggestion was to dig the plants up. Hmmm--digging 500 holes in my back yard seemed like a lot of work. Other places said using Round-Up was bad for the environment--go figure! Then I read a comment o=n a plant forum which said "Spray 'em with gasoline--that'll kill them quick and it's cheap." Hmmm.

SO, I suppose I should be ashamed to say, that the remainder of the pesky plants--both the first year ones and the dart shooting seed bearing second year ones are now black, crumpled, and dead. Now let's hope they don't mutate and engulf my house!!

One site on Google had this to say:

Bull thistle root can be eaten and is best used when mixed with other vegetables. Young flower stems can be cooked and young leaves can be eaten in a salad or tossed into a sauté. The taste is somewhat bland but the prickles MUST BE removed from the leaves before the leaves can be eaten! (Ya think??) 

Finally, if the EPA shows up on my door, I'll politely deny all of the above, delete thispost, and offer them a nice salad (without the prickles removed!!) 

Flint Hills 40

In keeping with a systematic comeback to ultra running, I entered the Flint Hills 40 miler and ran fairly well this past weekend all things considered. It was a bit warm and humid (but hey, it's almost summer.) I am a solid month back to full-on training, and my knee has been holding up nicely. The 3-Day 100K left me thin king I could do more--so why not 40 miles on a rails-to-trails course?

I met a couple of GOATz friends before the race. Di and I chatted for a while before the race. She takes a LOT of pictures during the--far more than I do, and I know that might be hard to believe.

Soon enough--and quite promptly at 6:00 am, we were sent off. The first couple of miles were actually on the Prairie Spirit trail as it heads northward through Ottowa. This was a 2 mile gradual downhill grade, and bodybuilder seemed like they were running more of a half marathon than a 40 miler. My thoughts--why not go out a bit fast. I was gonna slow down whether I ran 10 minute miles or 15 minute miles. So why not put time in the bank and beat some of the afternoon heat? This was a splendid idea for about three hours when heat-up began.

My buddy Justin was the course rabbit, and course marshal. I wish he was running. We would have ran some miles together.

My morning pic of the grain elevators was a dud, so I flipped the sunset pic taken from the other side then night before. Either way--at sunrise or sunset, it was a beautiful sight.

About 2.5 miles into the race, we ran up on a levee (which eerily reminded me of the Mississippi River levee from a few years back. Big foot eating gravel. But this only lasted a mile when we got onto the Flint Hills trail for good.

The trail was about 6-8' wide for most of the way, and was 75% shaded under a heavy green canopy of trees. Despite the warmer day, the shade made it bearable especially in the early going.

Any rails-to-trails course has awesome bridges. I knew it coming in. This one was cool, but the granddaddy bridge was coming up.

I was mid-pack, but my pace was slowing slightly. I knew that because I would occasionally get passed. No worries though. I had no idea what my actual pace was (and I really didn't care) because my fully charged Garmin was left on, and was nearly dead at the start of the race. Running without it was awesome. In a long race, my pace is a decaying number--a ugly sight. I have removed that nasty pace number from my main screen, leaving only the time of day and distance ran. But today, I only had a wrist watch that was 3-4 minutes slow (and too much of a pain to reset.)

This course could be a mobile clinic for photographers. It was easy to get a good picture--just point and shoot. The colors of the landscape did all the work for you. This was just before Rantoul (a town with the population of 19 or 20) where the 13.1 mile aid station was. This signaled the race as being a third-ish of the way through. I hit Rantoul in 2:39--things were going good. I visited the porta-john, and I left my speed sitting on the throne. I just had no get-up-and-go after that. Still moving well, but mostly shuffling.

Rick Mayo was on the course taking pictures--and he always does a FANTASTIC job. Thanks for not making me look fat.

The big bridge just before Rantoul (or just after on the return trip.)

No photo-shopping necessary. The blues, browns, and greens were vivid.

Just past Rantoul--where we had to go out 6.8 miles and then back--had far less shade. This beautiful field went on forever--more than a mile--but was a gradual downhill going out.

On my return trip, I passed Di on her way out. She was in last place, but well within the time limits--and at this time she was feeling great. I heard later that she was having major nausea issues (probably electrolytes problems) and had to drop. I was sad for her.

Here's my big field on the way back. Now a gradual uphill, and a slight tailwind that you could not feel at all. Zero shade. It felt like I was in a convection oven. Every now and then, I'd get passed. I had not peed even once since the race began, but was drinking a lot of water and taking a SaltStick every 45 minutes. I felt actually pretty good.

At Rantoul, Dana (my DW and crew babe) was waiting. I had a chocolate chip granola bar, a sandwich, Gatorade, 5 Hour Energy, pickle juice, and I am sure a bunch of other stuff. I left my glasses, pocketed some Shot Blocks, and headed out. 13.1 miles to go. Shuffle shuffle shuffle.

The trail-head heading back at Rantoul. The little white dot in the middle of the trail was the light through the tunnel of trees.

I wrote this in my mind as I ran, and recreated it on the way home on Notes on my iPhone.

Excerpts from mile 34-ish
Mile 34ish. It's hot but the trail is beautiful. My Garmin was dead at the start. My phone was dead due to taking a 30 minute video of the inside of my pocket. Don't know how far I have to go. Don't know how far to the next aid station, but I'm carrying two bottles so plenty of water. Very low on energy, but this is what I came for. Walking is probably a 20 m/m pace or slower. The zombie shuffle feels like a 15-16 m/m pace and it's easier. The only sound is from the wind on the trees which would feel good 50 feet lower, the shuffle through the gravel left right left right, and not deep not shallow breaths--breathe in for two steps breathe out for two. Onward. Right now, there's no place I'd rather be. 

I was confused as to how much further I had to go, and was surprised to see the last aid station 3.4 miles from the end when I thought there was another aid station that I had to come to. Great news though. The levee was not kind. There was no shade for the rest of the race. When I reached the Prairie Spirit Trail and headed south, I had a nice headwind. But the whole way form here was a gradual uphill. Not enough to make you walk, but too much to run. That's where the zombie shuffle works best.  17 city blocks. But these blocks were long. I bet those 17 blocks were well over 2.5 miles.

Thanks to the camera crew for taking 17 pictures of me. I really looked like I was more than ready to be done. Truth be known--I was.

My buddy Eric handed me my buckle and a 40 mile sticker. He's a great guy--puts on some great races. People just keep coming back for more. Thanks, my friend.

I feasted on watermelon and Gatorade, took a few silly pics with Di, who always takes legs pix after her races. It looks like we were in a sexy legs contest. I am proud to say I took second place.

A shower in the Celebration hall (I used all the hot water) and I was ready to head for home. Dana--saint that she is, drove most of the way while I tried to sleep, but gave up on the idea. Now, a couple of days later, I am still cussing going down stairs, but planning my next endeavor.