More Catching Up!

Ah finally, some room to breathe. Hello blog, hello to the one person still following:)

I am in Southern, California, Corona to be exact. I've been here visiting my mom who celebrated her birthday on Wednesday and then it's off to the San Diego 100-mile early in the morning (4AM) to crew and pace my friend Randy Katz who is attempting his first 100 miler. It may be a rough day, Randy has food poisoning, yikes. I just found out earlier today, never a good time for food poisoning especially now. Let's send him some good luck shall we.

Anyway thought I'd post a short blurb and pictures on the Miwok 100k like I said I would and the Quicksilver 50-mile. If I don't do it now it ain't going to happen. I hope to get a lot of images and maybe even some great video at San Diego. Well here we go!

MIWOK 100k
Wow what a great day that turned out to be for the runners. A bit cold for us spectators and crew but great for them. Ian Sharman ran in an Elvis costume, I'm sure it was better in cooler weather. Lots of good friends were out running, crewing, volunteering and pacing. A great time. I paced my friend Bradley Fenner who was just returning from injury. I can't believe how well he did considering he wasn't able to get a lot of long runs in due to a torn calf muscle - an incredible performance. Not his best race but probably one of his memorable ones. I was pooped after a long and hard April but I wouldn't have missed it. Enjoy the pictures and you can view the entire photoset here.

With BR who came all the way from the Philippines to volunteer. Actually I was supposed to pace him but he got injured. Kudos to him for making the best of the event despite the injury.

Buddy Larissa "Hammerchuk" Polischuk, looking strong and smooth coming into Pantoll Ranger station - outbound.

Stuff we do while waiting; talking, chatting, catching up on phone calls.

The leaders, a group of four, returning from the turnaround and on their way home.

Erika Lindland leading a couple of boys on the Coastal Trail, heading back to Pantoll Ranger Station and home.

Bradley, Florencia and I on the climb out of Muir Beach, closer to home but still a long ways to go.

At the finish with one of my favorite people, Chris Perillo. Chris had a cooler full of very cold Blue Moon beer, really cold.

QUICKSILVER 50-MILE
Ah Quicksilver, what's there to say. I started, got my butt whooped, had a great time, end of story. Haha, funny how with enough time, epic runs can be easily reduced into one sentence.

This was the weekend before Miwok, the last weekend of April. I started April with the American River 50-mile and instead of catching some recovery time I went right back into hard training and long runs all the way to the weekend of Quicksilver and ran Quicksilver with everything I had left. I didn't feel comfortable until mile 41 and only because I was chasing my buddy Randy. I started out tired, managed my race until miles 34-36 where I just plain flat out crashed, recovered then proceeded to run a really great last 9 miles. It was tough and I felt exhausted but I kept one foot in front of the other and actually ended up with a time faster than I expected. I think it was like 8:24 and change, good enough for 11th. Again enjoy the pictures and you can view the entire photoset here.

The carpool mates, Randy Katz and Jenn Patee. Thanks for the ride Jenn.

Don't let the smile fool you, I was already tired here:)

Pulling a "Tonya Harding" on 50-mile champ and new course record holder (6:01), Leor Pantilat. It was his first 50 too!

The course. Blue is the last 19 miles of the course, mostly a down and back.

My trashed Montrail Rogue Racers. I supinated and always trash the outside edges of my shoes.

Well that's everything, spelling and grammatical errors included. Gotta hit the sack for a couple of hours. I'm excited for all the San Diego runners. I've run the event the last two years and I'm not running it this year because of Western States. I'm glad to be visiting RD Scott Mills and the course again however. Crewing and Pacing is it's own ultra and you can't DNF, well you shouldn't anyway - another person is depending on you. A bit nerve wracking when I think too much about it, when I think that I have an influence on someone's race. I can help them succeed or hinder them inadvertently. Well see you guys on the other side of San Diego.