The Count Down Begins.....30 Hours Before Shotgun Start!

It's ironic that I'm positing this blog 30 hours out from the race start.  The race cut off is 30 hours.  Two years ago I finished the L100 in 29 hours and 22 Minutes.  I've done a bunch more races since then and have gained more experience, but have gotten a little slower.  This, I believe is an asset in Ultra Endurance Trail Races.  This morning I tipped the scales at 180.3 pounds.  When I last ran the L100 I weighed in at 176 pounds.  A little extra body fat should suit me well at high altitude.

Brian Johnston and Daley Ervin will be arriving tomorrow into Denver and then making their way up the mountain to Leadville.  We'll have a pre race meeting and late lunch/early dinner.  I will be on my back by 5PM MST in the hotel room.  We'll be leaving the hotel at 3AM in Frisco, CO to arrive in Leadville at 3:30AM for a 4:00AM shotgun start.  The temps should be at around 40F and will get up to 72F in the afternoon.  It's actually going to be a "hot" race relatively speaking.  Sun block sand covering up is a must.  You don't want to get fried in the sun and then have the temps drop at night into the high 30s/low 40's with a sun burn...bad things happen at high altitude.  It's very unforgiving and takes any minor issue and exacerbates it.  I'll be running with Tim Engel, Francisco Moreno, Greg Unger and a host of others that I've run with up here over the past 5 years.  They all have crews/support.

The plan is for Daley to begin pacing me at mile 60 to mile 87.  At mile 87 Brian will take over and pace me into the finish line.   I think that we'll all be just fine.  Patience and perseverance will win the day.

I signed up for Life360 which is a tracking mechanism.  Brian, Daley and Carla are all on it so I will be able to communicate with them on the course, where I can get coverage.  They too will be able to see exactly where I am on the course.

It's getting late and signing off for the evening....more to follow...Cheers..PT

The Leadville 100M Trail Run......

By this time next week I should be relaxing in Leadville after having completed my 2nd Leadville 100 of three attempts.  I started the season the Leadman Tri in AZ with my Nephew Timmy Picciott.  I followed it with a couple of sprint tri's, the St Jude's Country Music Marathon, a 5k or two, trail runs in the San Bernadino Mt's, the Summer Death Race in June, The Leadville 50M trail run in July and followed by IM Lake Placid the last weekend in July.

Awesome Crew & Pacers
Successful 2011 Race!

Am I trained and ready for the L100?  That's a good question that will only get answered by this time next week.  I know that I'm not as fast or as disciplined with my routine, but I kind of like that.  I'm 7lbs heavier right now, but hope to shed 3-4 of those pounds before next saturday rolls around.  I thought I'd dedicate this post to my previous attempts and my crews/pacers..check out the pics.....

2010 Race Crew & Pacers....
Rookie Year 

Butler Getting to Know the Locals

Long Race....

Daley Fishing While Butler is
Telling an old "Fish Story"

The Start begins at 4AM....

MayQueen Campground 13 Miles
into The Race

They Look Peaceful...Only Not

Brian & Daley at Twin Lakes
Strategizing....

The Strategizing Continues at Twin
Lakes When I arrive Back at Mile 60

Sutton Chillin Like A Villain at Twin
Lakes

Mile 40 Twin Lakes Aid Station
The Heat and Poor Nutrition Had Taken
Toll, 4 miles later First Major Bonk

Will was Determined Not to Miss
My Call as I was Heading Back
To Leadville on Sunday Morning

Personal Escort From My Two Kick Ass
Pacers

Ahhh...the Finish Line with My Little
Buddy Francisco.

IM Lake Placid Results.....

Lake Placid is a really nice venue for an IM.  The fan support was great.  The weather was threatening most go the day with overcast clouds, but never really did rain to speak of, making for perfect weather for an IM.

Pre Race 50th Anniversary Party

The swim...It was a nice two loop course.  I figured out on lap #2 that there was a rope about 5 feet under the surface that tied the buoys together that you could track to and swim in a straight line.  With my lack of swim training I was pretty pleased to be out of the water in under 1:45.

The bike was a rolling course whereby you could really make up some time  on the descents.  During lap #1 of the 2 lap course the roads were wet so I couldn't completely bomb the descents.  Getting off of the bike in under 7 hours was also a nice accomplishment.  The bike course was challenging but fun.  Having it go through Lake Placid so I could see Carla, Jack and Sadie made it tolerable and motivating.

The run was a little more hilly than I would've liked but I just forced myself to focus and push on,  finishing in under 5 hours.  As usual I ran the flats and down hills and walked the up hills.  The two loop course wasn't too bad.

1000 Isles Monster Pike
Great Job Sadie!!

The finish is always the best part.  Running down the finishers chute is always pretty special.  What made it more special was having Carla, Jack and Sadie at the finish.  Completing this IM makes it #7 after Brazil, Australia, Lanzarote, CDA, STG and AZ.  Need to knock down 5 more and get on the fast track to Kona.

I hit all of my projected times for all three segments.  Even though my overall time was nothing to write home about, it's about finishing, persevering and never quitting.  This one is in the record books.  

All is good...next stop Leadville!

Cheers!!

PT

IM Lake Placid

Bike Transition and Finish
in Speed Skating Oval

Getting ready to get my game on tomorrow in Lake Placid NY. Expecting to be out of the water in 1:40, off the bike in under 7 hours and doing a 26.2 in under 5 hours. That all means finishing before the sun goes down. Hoping that my legs bounce back from the SR 50M trail run 14 days ago. Right hip/glute is giving me some mild issues. Hoping my extra weight will assist on the downhills. Checking in at 185lbs. The heaviest I've been for an IM. Need to drop 10 before The Leadville 100 miler in 2 weeks.

1980 Ice Rink USA Beat Russia &
Wins the Gold...EPIC!

Should be a nice relaxing race. Plan on having fun and taking in the beautiful sites

By this time tomorrow night I expect to be loading up my bike in the car and heading out for an ice cream cone. Cheers!

PT

2013 Silver Rush 50M Trail Run.....

Post Summer 2013 DR, I've done a few short runs...relatively speaking and have gotten in a 40M bike ride and a 1M swim.  I'm trying to take it easy on my knees post DR.  Running mountains with 50-80LBs of extra weight beat my knees up.  I've got the SR50 coming up in a week and need to make certain that I have recovered as much as possible.  The SR50 is a pretty tough race...running on trails  at an average altitude of around 11,000 ft above sea level.  This will be my 4th SR50...3 year ago I finished in 10:04...an unbelievable time.  The following year I finished in 12:38...and got punished as a result of poor nutrition and hydration.  Last year I finished around 11:15 which was respectable and a time that I hope to replicate again this year.

The key to this race is managing the altitude.  It is only 50 miles but the altitude requires much respect...and then some.  Having completed the race 3X it's all about just finishing and enjoying the day with all of the other veterans and newbies.

Looking forward to seeing a bunch of my buddies there this weekend, Francisco, Tim, Patrick, Marge, Ken, Nancy, Greg, Ray and a slew of others that have run the trails of Leadville.

Till then, I've got to hit LA, Chicago and then Denver before making my way up to Leadville....The fun simply never stops....feeling good.

Cheers!

Death Race 2013 Results

Pittsfield, VT welcomed some 200 Death Racers for the 2013 summer race this past June.   It was the year of "The Gambler".  This theme took on many meanings throughout the race which either resulted in a chip or no chip.  At the end of the race only those that had completed all tasks and collected a total of 8 chips were allowed into the makeshift casino in the Barn at Riverside Farm for the final bet.  The dealer and racer each picked a card fro a deck of 52 cards.  If you had a higher card than the dealer, then you were given a skull...if not then tough luck...no skull.

The race began at registration on Friday at 6AM and ended on Monday at 6AM.  A 72 hour romp in the woods of VT.  We built a 1 mile staircase up the side of the mountain, chopped wood, cleared fields with snips, hiked for 30 miles + carrying a 45-50lb rucksack along with a 30lb stone.  We carried wood, we swam 3 miles, navigated a barbwire infested gully, swam through a mud pit, chopped more wood, hopped up a mountain with our ankles strapped together, memorized and forced to recite pictures and sayings, found our way through a cave and ran miles and miles back through the woods over and down the mountains all while avoiding cutoffs or the wrath of one of the organi
zing staff.

This years field was chock full of talented athletes, however the Death Race has its way of weeding out the field.  In the end it takes a little luck and a lot of just sticktoitness determination.  It has been said that the only reason why they have an end to the race is because the athletes that finish would never stop.

Admittedly I was asking myself the first night, "why the hell did I sign up for this damn race again, I know better!".  After getting to Saturday morning I wasn't feeling any better and by mid afternoon when we made our way back to Amee Farm I was ready to throw in the towel, as was Michael Moore, a fellow Death Racer from Nashville.  I placed a timely call to Carla telling her that I had had enough and was going to call it quits.  She reminded me of all of the training and sacrifice that I had made for this race and that just because I was feeling tired right now that I would regret it in the morning and forever actually if I just quit.  I think her words were.."don't be such a pussy pants, get something to eat and get back at it".  Those weren't the words of encouragement that I was looking for, but it struck a chord as I do know better that there are many many peaks and valleys in an endurance race.  There are so many points in a race when you just want to quit, give up, but you fight through it and finish.  This is what I did in this race.  It was a grind.  I didn't enter the race in my best condition, but good enough to finish.  As usual, the run, hiking part saved my bacon.  Endurance running and experience pays huge dividends int  a race like this.  Nutrition is important, hydration and taking care of your feet.  Once again, trench foot and blisters took down even the toughest of competitors.  Fortunately I had 4 changes of socks and pair of trail shoes.





In the end, it all came down to one hand of cards, I drew a 9 and the dealer drew a 2...Bingo.  This was my 3rd Death Race and 3rd Skull.  Toughest race to date.

Next race up is the Silver Rush 50 Mile Trail run in Leadville.  No easy task.


Cheers!

PT

Ok...So training has been going actually quite well since the Leadman in AZ.  That race was a bit of a beat down...but great early season training.

And that's all I have to Say!!

The music city marathon was an epic race.  The skies shit all over the runners for 4.5 hours of the race. It was surreal that as I was .5 miles out from the finish line that the rain stopped.  All of the animals backed up and stood on the arc, waiting to exit.

I left the house at 4:30AM on race day.   I ran to the start line from Brentwood and did about 14 miles in about 2 hours.  Lightning caused me to hole up at a local church in Brentwood.  Total time for 40+ miles was 6 hours and about 35 minutes.  All in, it was a pretty sporty time.  I had a couple of great pacers.  GG had me running an 8:30/mile through mile 5 when I had to give him the nod to go on without me.  On an ultra run its a big no no to run the hills, which i did through mile 20, knowing that I had another 20 miles to go...at that point I realized that I had my hand on the stove and the only remedy was to back off and slow the pace down.  Unfortunately, the temps were in the 50's with 10MPH winds...not too cool..actually too cool.

I struggled from mile 30 to 35 until I met this nice lady from NC..she and I had a nice chat, exchanges jokes and scripture...a rather odd combination..but it worked...I was obviously telling the jokes.

Since the race I've been running trails and doing some serious strength training getting prepared for the summer DR...gotta say..I'm a pretty motivated cat.

Game on....PT