Storeyburn Photo/Video Shoot

 

Here are some shots from the photo/video shoot that Adam and I did last Friday. Adam wanted to practice using his camera some more and is in the process of putting together some content for his demo reel as he contemplates a move to the City of Angels. So I took him up on his offer as it gave me a chance to get on my mountain bike for a little while and provided me with some quality photos for my blog. Take a look at the link below and let me know what you think.

Location: Storeyburn Trailhead, Tillamook State Forest.

Gallery link: Here

See more of Adam's work at http://adamschwartz5.wordpress.com/

UNT

Bryan

Jackson Hole Slideshow

Forgot to upload this slideshow that adam put together. Take a look and see the jackson hole dispatches for more information.



Jackson Hole from Adam Schwartz on Vimeo.

Kings Mountain, Tillamook State Forest

This past Saturday my mother and I headed into Tillamook State Forest with our eye on the summit of Kings Mountain just off Hwy 6. I wanted to do a bigger training day on Sunday when the weather was supposed to be better, but didn’t want to sit around and do nothing on Saturday. A little climbing and descending would be good for the legs. Also, I wanted to scout out Kings Mtn to see how much snow was still on the top because I was thinking about doing the Elk Mtn-King Mtn Traverse this upcoming weekend. I picked up my mom from Biscuits café (yes I slept in) and we headed out to the trailhead. My mom didn’t really know what was in store, but she’s a trooper so I wasn’t worried. I also brought along Rylee Dog. I figured that if I was in training then he should be in training as well so I brought along his pack and filled in with his medium weight load.

The trail basically goes straight up about 2,800ft to the summit which rests at 3,226ft. Neither of us had ever been to the summity of Kings so we weren’t sure how long it would take us. The forecast called for rain showers so we brought appropriate rain gear. I also brought snowshoes just in case it was really deep at the top, although we talked to a few other hikers in the parking lot who summitted, and they told us that snowshoes were unnecessary. So with that, we ditched the snowshoes and headed up.

It was really bright after coming out of the darkness of the forest canopy so we were both squinting

The trail is very steep in some sections so going was relatively slow at times. Ry, on the other hand, proceeded to run up and mountain the trail even with his heavier pack on. The weather stayed clear most of the day and we summitted around 3pm. The top 500ft of the trail still has too much snow on it for any trail running so I’ll have to find another run to do for this weekend. Probably somewhere in the Gorge as I need to get some elevation.  We got a little hail on the return back to the car, but other than that, the weather held off on us for the most part. Definitely was a good trip and I enjoyed spending some time with my mom. She kept up like a champ as I predicted. I’ll have to come out here later in the spring when the wildflowers are blooming and run the Elk-King traverse.

UNT

Bryan

Heading back down from the summit

Gorge Waterfall 50k Race Report

Well my race is over and I am sitting here with very sore legs and slightly deflated confidence. This was clearly the hardest of my 50ks to date.  I’ll start from the beginning. Friday night, I packed up the green machine and headed over to Wyeth Campground in the Gorge. I got there around 11pm, pulled into the first open site and climbed into the back of my car and into my sleeping bag. I didn’t sleep very well, not that I ever do the night before a race, and got cold during the night. The alarm went off around 6am as I struggled to locate any other movement in the campground. It was still dark and not much movement in any of the other sites. I waited until 6:15am before I got out of my bag and headed down to the check-in. When I got there, the parking lot was bustling and there seem to be ppl everywhere. I waited in line for the restroom (which is always packed before these kinds of events) then headed back to the car to get dressed and get ready. Once I was all ready to go, I dropped off my drop bags, picked up my bib number and jumped on the bus.

Activity at Aid Station 1

It took about 40 mins to get to the Wahkenna Falls TH, where I then proceeded to stretch and mingle with some of the other racers. After 20mins, I maneuvered my way to the front of the starting line and listened to the pre-race briefing. A few minutes later the countdown concluded and we were off! I settled into 11^th place and prepared for the 1,500ft climb that started 200 yards into the race. I knew this climb would take a lot out of me if I hit it hard so I tried by best to take it easy and walked a little here and there. It was cool looking down from the top and seeing all 150 runners making their way up the steep switchbacks. I settled into a groove, taking it pretty easy. We quickly made it to the top and then headed down past Multnomah Falls.

Coming into Aid 1

Around mile 8.5, we popped out on a road, which we followed 2 miles into Aid Station 1. I came into the Aid Station chatting with a nice guy from the Seattle area. My mom and sister were waiting for me at the aid station and quickly refilled my water bottle with Nuun and gave me my waist pack with a bottle of Perpetuem. In a flash, I was back on the trail and feeling pretty good heading towards Elowah Falls. A group of runners made a wrong turn around mile 13 or so and I found myself in the top ten. This made me feel pretty good so I began to push myself as I could feel the pressure of the stronger runners coming up behind me. This part of the trail had a rolling section of shorter steeper climbs and I began to slow down as I could feel my legs getting unusually heavy. A handful of people passed me at this point as I began bonking at mile 17ish. At this point, I knew it was going to be a long day as I still had almost half the race to still complete. My legs were just taking a beating from all the unanticipated miniature climbs and descends.

Coming into Aid 2

Around this time, my sister Megan met me on the trail. She needed to do some training for her XC team so she ran from Aid Station 2 towards me then came back with me. I informed her that I wasn’t feeling very fresh at this point and that the last 10 miles were really going to test my resolve. I swapped the waist pack for another handheld, grabbed some more gels and more nuun then headed towards the finish a daunting 10-11 miles away. Around 2 miles from Aid 2, my wheels officially came off. My legs were feeling very tight and my quads and knees began hurting when I tried to run downhill. Also, at this point in the race, it had been awhile since I hadn't seen any other racers and I felt like I had a pretty good lead on the ones behind me. However, when I got to the OAB section up to the waterfall, which I don’t remember even looking at since I was so tired, I got passed by an older gentleman, which would be the first of many encounters over the remaining race.

Around mile 25.5, I headed down towards Herman Creek and was barely able to run downhill at all, grimacing the whole way down. My legs were officially shot and I was running on pure will power at this point. I started to feel the first twinge of cramping in my calves as my water bottle was empty. That was the end of my 3^rd bottle of nuun and I have never cramped in a race before. Luckily, the last water station was up ahead so I was able to fill my bottle and drop in my last nuun tablet. Once dissolved, I began drinking as much as my stomach would allow, but it wasn’t much. I knew I needed electrolytes and wished that I was grabbed some pills at the last aid station. In preparation, I felt that nuun would be enough and that endurolyte pills would not be needed. However, I can now see the benefit of them bc you can take a couple pills all at once without having to down half a bottle of nuun. Yes you still would need to drink lots of water after consuming a few pills, but this method would definitely get the electrolytes into your body faster. (Note to self!)

The last four miles of the race were torturous. I walked way more than I would have liked and ran only so much as my body allowed. Unfortunately, the last 5 miles of the race were all downhill which was VERY hard on my aching quads and calves. I got passed by a few people during my time in the pain cave, which was predictable given the wasted state of my body, but it was still very frustrating. With roughly ¾ of a mile to go, I saw a guy coming up behind me, who I recognized from earlier in the race. He was wearing all MHW gear with Montrail shoes so I figured he also worked for Columbia Sportswear. I decided enough was enough and no one else was going to pass me, especially not MHW man. All of a sudden all the pain lifted as adrenaline finally rushed into my body. I nearly sprinted (downhill) the last ¾ of the mile, cruised past my mom waiting by the bridge and pulled through the finish line with a time of 5hrs and 35mins. I was completely spent at time point and was humbled by the hardest thing I have ever down physically. I ended up getting 14^th overall and was 2^nd in my age group. The guy in my age group that beat me was the first place finisher overall and he beat me by over an hour!

Megan and I at the finish

I found out later that the guy who came in behind me (otherwise known as MHW man, was Ryne Melcher, a member of the Montrail Ultra Trail Running Team). I suspect he wasn’t going very hard bc he is racing Chuckanut in the next few weeks, but it still felt good to beat him, even if he wasn’t going all out like I was at that point.

So in conclusion, I was disappointed about how beat up I was physically at the end of the race considering how much training I put in. But my almost complete lack of hill training was clearly my Achilles heel in my train. Ill definitely have to hill the hills hard if I expect to finish the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40m in April.

Also big thanks to my mom and sister, who took all the pictures, but more importantly, came out to support me during one of the hardest things Ive ever done.

UNT

Bryan

Megan and Ry Dog

Gorge Waterfall 50k Prep

As you can see, I gave my blog a recent face lift. I might change it again soon depending on how I feel about this one after a week or so. Anyway, tomorrow I run the Gorge Waterfall 50k. This will be my longest run so far leading up to the Peterson Ridge Rumble 40M on April 10^th. Originally, I planned this run as a mandatory long training run and wasn’t going to get after it all that much, but once you pin a number on your shorts, despite what you think, you are racing. So with that in mind, I have been thinking about pushing myself a little harder than originally planned. The only down side to this, is that my next and primary “A” race as some ppl call them, is only a month away so it might not be a good idea to push that hard… Who knows… The conditions aren’t supposed to be all the great either. Forecast calls for a 90% chance of rain with temperatures hovering in the mid 40s, with likely snow accumulated in the higher elevations. So not the fastest conditions. But hey, this is the Pacific North Wet so cant really be all that surprised. It is hard to imagine that tomorrow will be rainy, when as I look out the window, it’s blue sky and sunny. That’s all for now. Look for the full race report early next week.

UNT

Bryan

Clackamas River Trail

 

This past weekend I convinced Andrew, who was visiting town to job hunt and hang out with the gf, to come run the Clackamas River Trail with me. We dropped Andrew’s car off at the end of the trail at Indian Henry TH and then drove back down to the start of the trail to leave my car and begin the trip. The plan was to both run up the trail to Andrew’s car, where Andrew would conclude his day and I would turn around and run back to my car. When we got up past Estacada or Enchilada as Andrew called it, there was considerably more snow on the ground than expected. We decided, after a quick roadside powwow, to continue with the original plan and make it as far as we could. So after dropping Andrew’s car off at the top, we set off from Fish Creek TH in light snow. I had chosen not to bring my MHW Seta gaiters (something I quickly regretted) and chose to run in my Mountain Masochist GTX. We ended up running in snow almost the whole time, but luckily the trail had already been broken in and was clearly visible. On the way up, we stopped at the falls and admired all the icicles dangling from the cliffs. Eventually, we made it to Andrew’s car in about an hour and a half of running. I made some shoe adjustments, grabbed some water and Clif shots and headed back down back to my car. I made it back in about one hour and twenty five minutes for a total of 16 miles. All in all it was a great trip on a new trail that Ive never done before. However, I look forward to completing it again in the summer and fall when the flowers are in bloom and the leaves are back.

UNT

Bryan

Kayak Launch at Fish Creek