Today was the 3rd Annual Born to Run event at Soaring Eagle put on by Evergreen Trail Runs. This run seems to always happen for me either right after a really long event or when I’m injured so even though they have distances up to 50k I’ve always ended up doing the shortest route possible which was 10k three years ago and 5-miles last year and this year. I also always do this run in my Luna Leadville sandals even though the place is a mud hole. I was hoping that all the work they did on the pipeline trail would make things less mucky this year, a few weeks ago it looked pretty good, but it was still pretty slippery and nasty in places. At least two crazy people did the event barefoot and I saw one other guy in Lunas plus a few in VFFs, Inov-8s and other minimal shoes.
More running reading – The Cool Impossible
Sitting through injury recovery and not being able to do much on the trails it seems I’m getting my fix indirectly by reading about running. More specifically I’ve been reading a lot about injuries, injury prevention and training programs that claim to get people beyond injury and back on the trails or roads. The Cool Impossible by Eric Orton is the latest in a series of such books I’ve ready.
Eric was Christopher McDougall‘s running coach for Born to Run. Since BtR was the book that got me into minimalist and trail running this book was a must-read for me and I pre-ordered the deluxe version of the book from iBooks as soon as I could. Once the book arrived I devoured it in about 3 days but have since gone back over some sections over and over.
Anatomy for Runners – Review and What I Learned
Five weeks ago I was on an easy morning run when my right hamstring cramped up and I had to stop running. I limped home figuring that it would go away in a few days of rest. I tried to ‘run’ four days later and was unable to go a mile before the hamstring locked up totally. More rest. Two weeks later I was in more pain than the original cramping and headed to my sports medicine doctor. Grade 2 Hamstring Strain was the diagnosis, should be back in 4-6 weeks with heavy Voltaren and PT. That time period is about up and there is no way I can run yet, there are days it hurts just to sit. Not able to run, I started reading about running and came across “Anatomy for Runners” by Jay Dicharry.
Love the one you’re with
Bull Trout saves the day from a skunk
There are days when you just can’t seem to get the fish you are after, what to do? Well, like the song says “When you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”. On a recent end of season steelhead trip the steelhead all seemed to have lock-jaw. I was getting great swings that I knew were going over fish but they just would not open up and eat. Luckily I had some grabs and these turned out to be bull trout which saved the day from a skunk and I got to land a beautiful (and endangered) fish.
Minimalist Fly Fishing
For the last several years I made the transition to minimalist running, running in shoes that are barely more than a moccasin and allow one to run more naturally like you were barefoot. This year I’m going to try minimalist fly fishing.
My small stream setup had already become more minimal over the years. I used to carry a rod, reel, vest and net when fishing small streams and the vest was packed full of two fly boxes, leaders, tippet, etc… I then parred down a bit and went to a small chest pack that held one fly box, an extra leader, tippet, nippers and some floatant. Then a few years ago I got even more minimal and went to a lanyard system that has a very small fly box, a few spools of tippet material, a nipper and a bottle of floatant. This works pretty well with the only disadvantage being that when hiking it still takes a while to put together a 4-piece fly rod, attach the reel, string up the line and tie on a fly.
The Heart Sutra and the Half Marathon
On the first lap. Photo by Takao Suzuki
The Redmond Watershed is my home trail, I run there more than any other location since it is so close to the house. Because of this I try to do all the events I can at the Watershed and used it for my first trail marathon a few years back. By the time the Northwest Trail Runs Spring Fun Run rolled around I hadn’t quite built up enough mileage for a full marathon so I signed up for the half but figured if I was feeling great I could always continue lapping and do the full, it had to be easier than all the hills at Ft. Ebey.
I Don’t Practice Santeria…
Jeff and I arrived in Miami late on Sunday night for our fishing trip and after leaving MIA headed to the nearest Publix to get food so we could make lunches for the week. In the fruit department I was reaching for bananas and Jeff nixed that idea. OK, bananas are bad luck on the boat but isn’t it alright to have one for breakfast? I wasn’t going to take any chances on this front so decided I could live without a banana for the week.
Biscayne & Islamorada Trip
Late afternoon tarpon battle
Jeff and I had not fished together for about a year and a half and I never made it to any flats in 2012 so we decided to put together a short trip to South Florida to get together and escape the Seattle and DC winters. The plan was to fish Biscayne Bay and the Everglades since they offered the best bet in the winter months for finding fish. Of course I was keeping an eye on the Miami weather weeks in advance and things were looking great until a few days before the trip when a cold front was suddenly scheduled to hit mid-week. Well, the weather gods had other plans is store which is typical of most of my trips to Florida.
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Fort Ebey Half Marathon
Walking up the last big hill
Not sure what possessed me to sign up for this one other than the fact I was about ready to run a half and it seemed like there would be some great views along the shore of Whidbey Island. What I hadn’t considered was the elevation gain. I expected a run from the shore up to the bluff but didn’t realize until days before that the trail had 2600′ of elevation gain and was also as twisty and turny as Dash Point. This made it the hardest half I’ve done elevation wise and very similar in nature to the Deception Pass 25k which had a few hundred more feet for the extra few miles.
That said, it was a perfect day to run with temps in the mid to upper 40s and the wind had died down a lot from yesterday to a cool breeze coming off the water. The trails were a bit wet and muddy in places due to yesterday’s rain so I opted for Inov-8 TrailRoc 245s instead of Luna Sandals for the run and this turned out to be a good choice.
Sun Country Snowshoe Run
At the Start of the race
I ran the Jingle Bells Snowshoe Run with Snowdog Events in December and had so much fun that I had to do it again so I signed up for the February event. We couldn’t have asked for better weather with the sun shining and temps in the upper 30’s though the snow could have been better. After having deep powder in December we were left with a mix of slushy snow, ice, and very thin areas with more grass than snow but the course took advantage of what snow was left on the golf course even if it did have to be shortened to a 4k instead of 5k loop.
I ran with the same setup as before – a pair of thin Injini wool socks covered by a pair of thin SmartWool socks, Merrell Trail Gloves and the new Atlas gaiters I won in the pre-race raffle. Add on the Atlas Run snowshoes and it was a great lightweight setup.
The course was fun given the snow conditions though I felt it was a bit harder than last time around mainly due to the changing conditions. It all went by way fast and I finished 5th overall in 29:17. I thought I had finished in 2nd since I only saw one other person at the finish line but evidently the other guys all vanished. Still, not a bad finish for the event and it was fun. I didn’t stick around too long afterwards, once I cooled off I headed out to the Yakima in Cle Elum to fish a few hours.
Next up – Ft. Ebey Kettles Half Marathon next week…