Hagg Lake 50K 2-18-12

The Hagg Lake 50K which is about 35 miles west of Portland is so famous for its mud that it’s “in”famous. (3 Amigos reference) This year was no exception. It was great to see so many familiar faces from the ultra-running crowd again. I don’t post much about my training (or really anything) and I have to admit I really enjoy reading about other folks training so I’ll try and do a bit more of that. Heading into Hagg I feel like I have been hitting some block at around the 70 miles/week mark. I have had some good long runs, and my workouts (one a week) have been a bit hit and miss. So I figured this race would go fine, but I knew going out with the big boys would be a very unwise.

The key to Hagg I think is to focus on effort and try to not pay attention to your pace. I finished 6^th in 4:03 which is a 7:50 pace. That seems amazing because when I think about the race I really only recall slogging my way at maybe a 9:30 pace. I was lucky however because there were almost always other runners around to help remind me that I was actually racing. When you have to work really hard to go so slow it’s easy to slip into “training run mode”. Once again Lewis was right behind me and finished only two minutes back.

Race Day Highlights:

· Lewis’s Garmin routing us to a Ferry Crossing of the Willamette on the way to the Lake at like 5:30am

· Realizing at mile 27 when I was covered in mud, really tired, hardly moving forward, ankle deep in water, getting hammered by rain, that I was smiling.

· The helpful volunteers at the aid stations and the great soup, space blankets and instant results at the finish line.

Great day overall, but I have to say I’m looking for dry trails, logging roads and pavement for the next few weeks.

A

Zena 15K 2-5-12

Zena is a small(ish) 15K race NW of Salem. I heard about the race from Tom Atkins, who ran it last year, and Lewis Taylor. The race is run on super bowl weekend and has been going for 44 years! That's amazing. It's a great loop that is exactly 15k with no silly ad on at the end so I can see why it has attracted runners for over 4 decades. It starts out with a steep 1 mile climb, rolling up 2 miles, then 2-3 miles downhill and then a "rolling" last 3 miles.

Going into this race my training had been maybe in the 60 miles per week with long runs and a few mediocre workouts. I raced this one and it really reminded me how much it hurts to work a hard road race, good stuff. Considering the course I was really happy with a 53:51 / 5:43 average pace. Sunsweet teammate Lewis Taylor was less than a minute back in 54:44.

In an effert to maintain our "ultrarunner" geek status, Lewis and I ran the thing backwards after the race and then enjoyed a beer in the sun complements of Tom Atkins (the beer not the sun)