Crimson Canyons Ultra 50k, Sep 26, 2020

Eating ice chips out of my bra saved me on this race.    hot.   Hot.  HOT.  

Not many posts this year.   The Crimson Canyons 50k has been on my radar for a couple of years, but it has been getting bumped by the Spartan World Championships.   Thanks to COVID all my Spartan Races got cancelled, and a bunch of other races too.  Thankfully, Crimson Canyons found a way to keep racing, and since they are close to home down in Richfield, Utah, we were happy to finally race again.  

The race course started right from town, and made two loops up into the hills west of the interstate.   Jim was doing the 25k, which was just the second loop, which we found out was the shorter, but more technical loop.    The coolest moment of the day was at the start, but I was almost comfortable in just my sports bra and shorts, which didn't bode well for conditions later in the day.  

The first six miles were perfectly flat.  I love races where I feel like I can get some mileage out of the way quickly.   At mile 4 I found myself leading the women's race!  Now to just hold the lead for another 27 miles...not a problem, right?   I felt great power hiking up the hill on the first loop, and then ran down my favorite trail of the trail, a dry canyon where a couple of us bombed down sandy and rocky washes at full speed.   The first loop was quickly done, and I came in well ahead of any goals I could have made for myself, 15 miles in under 3 hours.   

Back at the START/FINISH/TRANSITION area, I put on my shirt for some sun protection, and grabbed my hiking poles as well as filling up my water bottles with my race mix.    The next five miles would be uphill, hot, dry and slow.  We would be heading through Dairy Canyon, Flat Canyon, and Cathedral Canyon, the iconic sections of the race.  Already thirsty, I quickly realized that my drink mix wasn't working for me.  Too many calories, not enough water, and I couldn't stand the taste of it.  My stomach didn't like it either.  I had changed my formula recently, and swore right then I was going back to the original immediately.   There was nothing I could do for a slow five miles as I picked my way up the canyons.  

The canyons were beautiful, but I was hot and dry and wishing they were over with already.   When I finally reached a flat section, my stomach was sloshing and I still had most of my drink mix left.  I would have loved to puke but couldn't.  Dehydration was setting in, and I was pushing hard at a fast walk.  Finally I could see the aid station.   They had plenty of ice, so I stuffed some down my bra and held a baggie in my hand.   My fatal mistake was sticking with my drink mix.   There was a short loop of 2 miles through Cathedral canyon and then we would come back to the same aid station.  I was still in 1st place leaving the aid station, but in the next two miles. dehydration would slow my pace, and 4 women passed me.   My motivation broke along with the sweat on my brow.   I couldn't even run downhill.  

Finally, back at the aid station, I refilled my bottle with plain water, grabbed a whole can of Coke, and started walking back uphill.   The next few miles would about break me.   The hills were steep like roller coasters, and the heat was intense.   On the other had, the Coke immediately made my stomach feel better.  Amazing how quickly that worked.   But it wasn't enough liquid to keep me going and my water bottle was down to dribbles.  I could barely keep walking, and stopped several times to rest under the infrequent shade of small pine trees.   The ice that I had in my bra and baggies was long reduced to hot water.   I kept enough wits about me to pop my third AltRed capsule of the day, if I couldn't eat anything useful at least I could let Altred give me some extra endurance!  

I staggered into the next aid station and sat in a chair for 20 minutes with a bag of ice and a bottle of water.  I was incapable of moving for a while, or even talking, which I'm not sure had ever happened to me before.   The volunteers were great and put an icy towel on my neck.  

I was thoroughly sick of my hiking poles by then, as trying to carry water bottles as well is hard without a pack.  Either poles AND a pack, or neither one, I concluded.  Doh.  The race director kindly agreed to carry my poles down to the finish as he dropped off some more ice at the aid station, and finally my hands were free to pick ice out of my bra with abandon!  LOL.  

So I grabbed a bag of chips, more ice, and a bottle of water.  I had 6 miles of mostly downhill to the finish.   I could run a little bit, but I was so hot.  I tried to ration my ice chips, but they always seemed to run out too quickly.   I tried to eat a few potato chips, but I had so little saliva that they literally turned to dust in my mouth that I just spit them out.   It wasn't an entirely pleasant last six miles, even with a refill of ice and water from the last aid station.  I ended up finishing in 7:45, when the women who passed me finished about an hour earlier, which I should have been capable of.   I definitely needed to keep on top of my liquids better with temperatures in the 80s.   

Jim was done and showered and relaxing long before I finished, but said the heat got to him as well.  He hadn't brought enough water for the first section through the canyons either.  Luckily he finished about midday, so it wasn't uber hot, and made it around that loop in a faster time than I had!  

Of course, the next day the high temperature was only in the 50s. But by then I was back home recovering.  When I weighed myself the next morning i was still four pounds lighter than normal, and no, you don't lose weight from a long run...that was all water weight as I was still drinking extra water for days.   Hopefully I get a chance to go back and run that course again, I did enjoy it and quite a bit was really runnable.   With 5000 feet of elevation gain it was tough but beautiful.  

Results are here:  Crimson Canyon Ultra 50k/25k

Arizona Spartan Super and Sprint, Feb 15-16, 2020

The Arizona race has been on my bucket list of Spartans since I started racing a couple of years ago.  Although I feel lucky to have picked 2020 as my first year to attend...I hear 2019 was really, really, cold...this year, the weather was perfect!



My first Spartan of the year, so the challenge is on to get my Spartan 2020 goal completed quickly...one of every type of race, and one of each podium spot!  Jim just laughs and shakes his head, but the sooner I complete them all, the less races we travel to, and perhaps we will have time for that backpacking trip I've been thinking about for a couple of years....

The Super this year is now a standard 10k, so shorter than ever before.   I figured doing it twice would be good practice for my Ultra coming up in a month.   Of course, race mornings always seem to start in the dark when it's still a little chilly.  I picked up a hitchhiker to bring to the race, a guy named Lance staying in my same hotel.  Getting a ride with me would allow his friends to sleep in a bit longer, and we drove out into the desert with a tinge of pink lighting the sky. 

I always seem to question my life choices when I am waiting at the start line of a Spartan race.  I'm stripped down to shorts and a sports bra, the sun is barely up, temperature is in the mid 40s.   I'm freezing and I know that the dunk wall will come around in just a mile or two.   Yet when I cross the line and start running out near the front of the pack, everything comes back into focus.

This year Spartan is starting the women's age group waves 90 seconds behind the men,  rather than mixed into a whole group.   This gives us a few seconds to eyeball our competition and get a better idea who may be in front.  I'm starting with two age groups as usual, so I play the guessing game.  "Is she in my age group or the next one older?"   I resolve not to let anyone ahead of me since I've been practicing with speed work.

That lasts until we start, and a couple of women shoot off ahead.  I can't catch them running, I'll have to do it on the obstacles.   And all the hard obstacles are here.  I've been lax in my strength workouts for weeks, and just hope that I can muscle through them all.   The dunk wall is absolutely disgusting, with the kind of squishy, sandy mud which gets in my shoes and socks (among other things) and makes running uncomfortable.

Nothing is worse this race, though, though, than the barbed wire crawl.  It is strung low over a rock hard gravelly path, made worse by deep tractor ruts left after the last rain.   I'm forced to roll over and over rather than crawl, so I can feel the bruises forming on my arms and hips rather than my knees.  This is where you have to ignore the pain if you want to win.   I try to remember that near the end of the 100 meters when everything hurts each time I roll over.   Everyone is still damp from the dunk wall, and there are mutters around me of us looking like sugar cookies, referencing the Seals training on the beach by coating themselves in sand.  I spit out some dirt and it doesn't taste like sugar!



The trail itself is a slow, rocky, uneven, hilly desert, with the occasional cactus just intruding into the path.  Passing is difficult and I'm stuck behind slow runners starting ahead of me.   There aren't any women in sight, and I think maybe I've passed them all.   One can only hope.

My race is clean, I don't do any burpees, and in 1:20 I finish the 10k.  It's good enough for second place.   I'm happy with that and will have to push harder tomorrow on the Sprint (5k) to keep up with the woman finishing ahead of me.   But now I have enough time to re-register and run the course again before the podium awards.   It's a fun run, and I take it easy, failing only the Olympus wall which I really hate anyway.  There's no easy way through the barbed wire, though, it hurts a little worse the second time.  And the dunk wall is dirtier!

My favorite photo of the weekend; some random person clawing their way under and through the sludge!

Sunday morning, I pick up Lance again (his friends racing Open are really happy they don't have to stumble to the race in the frosty dark) and gear myself up for a really hard effort.  It's only about 3 miles and I have to push from the start.  I even warm up a little running around the festival area, which i usually don't bother with.

It doesn't help.  I cannot run fast enough.   I run so fast I might puke and the same woman disappears ahead of me.   Dang.   Most of the hard obstacles aren't on the course today and although I have another clean race it won't be good enough.  The third time through the barbed wire is really horrible.   Just afterward, I see the woman who took third yesterday.   We run together for a couple of miles, and at the finish she's pulled ahead by just 15 seconds.   I'm absurdly happy to have the 3rd place medal.  Don't laugh.   I like a complete collection of things.    If I finish out the year with a 1st I'll post a photo of all of them together.

I had planned on running the Sprint again too, but the thought of a 4th time through the barbed wire is too much for my body.  My brain won't admit it, and I head to the line to re-register.  It's literally a mile long.  Some bus loads of people all just decided on a whim to come race I guess.  I take it as a sign, and rinse off to wait for the podium awards.  By now it's sunny and pleasantly warm and it feels amazing to be sitting in the shade and not racing.

 

 

  

 

Superstition Mountain Traverse

I'm down here in Phoenix, Arizona, and I had plans to run the Rock n'Roll Marathon last weekend.  I really was hoping that I could run under 4 hours, having run a heartbreaking 4:01:37 in Des Moines back in October.   Unfortunately, some random stomach pains/headache but not the flu got in the way, clearing up a day too late for me to even think of wanting to run anywhere but back to bed.

With fresh legs and all the pressure off until I pick another marathon, it's back to the drawing board, and I'm trying to up my speed with Yasso 800's.   Once a week, I'm building up repeats of 800 meters (1/2) mile, trying to keep the same fast pace for each repeat.  The theory is that the time you run the repeat (3:35 in my case) then becomes your marathon time (3 hours 35 minutes).   Anyone found those numbers to be true?  I can't imagine actually running a 3:35 marathon. 


Road marathons don't make me drool the way a tough trail does, though, and my legs wanted a long one.   East of Phoenix, the Superstition Mountains dominate the landscape, rising about 3000 feet above the valley floor.   To add to an already challenging traverse, I started my day at the Hieroglyphic trailhead in Gold Canyon, taking the Lost Mine trail around to the start of the 11 mile Superstition traverse. 

It was a beautiful morning for a run, and I started out to the sound of desert wrens singing in the shadows of giant Saguaro cacti.   It should have been about 5 miles of rolling terrain around to the start of the climb.   However, the trail to the summit was completely unmarked, and I ran right by it while admiring the scenery.  Oops.  About a mile later, I checked my phone map and paled a little.  Nothing like an extra couple of miles added to what the guidebook says is the toughest traverse in the Phoenix area, right?

Back at the right trailhead (signed the Wave Cave, btw), I then immediately missed the next trail junction and found myself heading up the Wave Cave with people that definitely weren't doing the traverse!   Oops again, but not as far, thank goodness.   Finally I was on the right trail, and didn't expect any other junctions until I came down the mountain on the other side.   Unexpectedly, I saw a lot of people on the climb up.   Six groups or more!  Guess they knew where they were going better than I did.


up, Up, UP and away I went.   Near the summit, a short side trail took me to the actual peak.  It was rocky and steep and beautiful, and I could finally see back down to where I had started.   Later on, I was surprised to see a junction heading back down to the Hieroglyph trailhead.  Let me say that I was mightily tempted to take that shortcut!   I almost had to, as it was challenging to find the traverse trail heading north.  I was reminded of my favorite quote from the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time novels.  The hunter Lan was said to be able to "track yesterdays wind across stone by moonlight".   Yet here I was having trouble finding a well worn path across some slickrock.

I don't know why that sentence stuck with me, but I ran along sniffing out the trail using one rock cairn then the next.   The traverse of the ridge started in earnest at that point, just as I was hoping it would be all downhill from here.  Not at all.  The trail went up and over every tiny bump on the ridge.  Some not so tiny.  Every time I thought I was near the end, another rocky outcrop would appear.











My biggest fear was tripping on the odd rock and then turtling into a cactus.  I imagined myself stuck there in a huge prickly pear variety, futilely waving my arms and legs while sinking deeper into the thorns.  Thankfully I kept my feet under me at all times and limited myself to a couple pokes from Yucca encroaching onto the trail.

It was beautiful though, and I settled into a fast walk and enjoyed the cactus and rock formations.   At some point near the end of the ridge, I gave up on my goal to do an actual marathon that day by running back to the RV.  It was hot and the afternoon was passing away.  Jim saved me by agreeing to pick me up at Lost Dutchmen State Park.  All I had to do, then, was descend the Siphon Draw.   After not seeing a soul for over 6 miles, I finally saw lots of people again in the draw.  It was about 2000 feet of descent straight down a dry gully.  Very steep and tricky; I recorded my slowest mile of the day going downhill!   45 minutes to slowly pick my way down to the desert floor. 

So, so glad to see Jim drive around the bend to pick me up, my legs were toast after 19 miles.    Anyway I had just taken my last sip of water, which I'd been rationing for a while!

From the summit:  our RV is down there some where in the white blob

Summit box: Darn it, I forgot to bring up a mini bottle of Fireball to throw in the tip jar

At the top of Siphon Draw looking at people on top of the Flatiron

Looking up at the summit of Superstition Mountain

AltRed Ambassador

I've sold myself for some bright red little pills.  Lol.  In a moment of excitement, I applied to be an AltRed Ambassador.    You, the reader, though, are the big winner, because I can now share a 15% discount code if you think AltRed could help you.  

Website:   https://shop.sur.co 

Discount code:   dwestrum-altred

Before you start thinking I'm something special, though, know that I'm just one of about 300 ambassadors of this product.   I'm doing it because I researched the product and it should help me in my search for the holy grail of my favorite sport...running faster!  

Do they work?  Well, the science says they do.  The main ingredient in AltRed is Betalains, which are found in beets, but these are 17x more bioavailable than eating or drinking beets or beet juice.   To get the contents of one capsule of AltRed, you would have to eat a lot of beets and all the sugar that accompanies them.  

Betalains increase oxygen delivery, raise lactic acid threshold, and reduce muscle damage.    In one study of 5k time trials, AltRed lowered heart rate, lowered rate of perceived exertion, and increased running speed by a couple percent.  

Here's one of the studies, you can read about it yourself:  
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/4/3/40/htm

How do you take them?   For an "A" race, you could load with 1-2 capsules a day for 6 days, then take one capsule 1-2 hours before the race and every 2 hours during a longer race.  For normal workouts, 1 capsule before a workout would be enough.  

I first used AltRed at a Spartan race, and although it's hard to isolate one component of my race preparation, I do believe they could make a difference.  I'm definitely getting on the podium fairly regularly!