Experiencing a Voyage and Yuck

I'm still trying to figure out my fall racing plans, but the Birkie trail marathon is on the calendar, so I'm getting off the roads and looking for elevation to prepare myself. I got a good shot of trail love this weekend when I went up to the Voyageur 50 mile to immerse myself in the ultra running world. I wasn't racing, but went up to cheer for and support my friends Jeff and Rob. Former TNC athlete Kara was up cheering for her friend Emily, who just happened to be about the same speed as Jeff and Rob, so the two of us carpooled to the various aid stations. It was nice to have some company while hanging out waiting for our runners to come through.

The day started out cool but quite humid, and then got hot while remaining every bit as humid. There were no pacers allowed, but I did run back and forth a bit near the 14 and 18 mile aid stations cheering on Jeff and Rob. The course was beautiful; I ran 8 miles or so up and down the longest hill on the course and along a nice creek. That was enough to make me glad I wasn't doing 50 miles though, it was muggy.

Jeff started out with Kristi Nowak, who went on to dominate the womens race. She looked in control, but the pace was a bit too fast for Jeff. He backed off around mile 14, but was still making good time. When I saw him at mile 18 he was feeling good. When I saw him at the turnaround and at mile 32 he had a 25 minute gap on Rob was itching to start racing, but by mile 36 he was in a pretty bad way. The fast start and not eating enough were catching up to him and his stomach was shutting down and really hurting. He laid down at the aid station for probably 20 minutes or so trying to get cool and taking in slow sips of dilute coke to try to coax his stomach back into operation. Eventually things settled down a bit and he got back on his way. When we saw him at mile 43 he was running, but not fast. At mile 47 he had to take a short lie down again to settle his stomach down, then he raced the last 5k in strong, finishing in 10:15.

Jeff still running after 50 miles

Rob looked calm and in control the whole day. His goal was to finish in 10 hours, and he came in at 9:56. He ran his own race and took care of himself well, this guy knows how to execute! Emily was also looking pretty rough on the way back, but forced herself on and finshed in 10:04, an impressive 4th place female in her first 50 miler.

Sunday the Vakava crew joined up with SCAR (St. Croix Area Racers) for a long skate rollerski. It was fun to have a bigger group, and Nate, Andy, Hans, and I pulled a few of the younger guys along at a pretty good clip for the first 25k. A number of us hearty folks took off for a second lap, and we almost made it back before the rain started.

Nate and I leading the pack - photo: Bruce Adelsman (Skinnyski)

Skate rollerskiing has been a bit frustrating this summer. I feel like I'm not doing a very good job maintaining the technique cues I'm trying to learn and I have just felt weak on the skis so far. Hopefully this comes around in the fall once I lighten up on the running load a bit.

This week has been off to a rough start. Among other life issues my computer decided last night that it no longer felt like running and just shut off, leaving me feeling a bit cut off from the outside world. I've been having trouble sleeping for the last couple weeks. I was hoping it was due to the heat or to my reduced training volume and would go away when I started to ramp the mileage back up, but that hasn't been the case. It has been wearing me down and I picked up a head cold over the weekend, so I've pretty much been a walking (and running) zombie all this week so far. Today's speed work was miserable, slow and laborious, and trying to focus on anything at work seems like an exercise in futility. Hopefully being sick will finally convince my body that sleeping is a good idea.

I brought Mozzarella in to the vet a couple weeks ago because she had a pretty bad sore on her stomach. The Vet put her on a couple weeks of antibiotics, but when that had no effect he sent a biopsy sample in to the lab. The results just came back in Monday, she has cancer, and based on the size of the tumor it is pretty aggressive. So far she doesn't seem to be in any distress and is still happily eating and hopping all over the place. As long as quality of life is good there is nothing to do, but I fear my adorable roommate may not be around much longer.

Mozzarella eyeing up the camera

I usually try to keep things pretty upbeat on the blogging front, but sometimes good news is hard to come by. I'll at least end on a high note. When I got home after Sunday's long rollerski there was a box waiting in my mail full of aluminum foil and more importantly chocolate and peanut buttery goodness hand crafted by my friend Sharon. She put together a care package for Nichole and I when she was on one of her baking kicks. Plus when I stopped to drop off Nichole's her and Nate fed me some of the tasty pizza they were baking up.

Delicious mail - thanks friend!