Adventures in Onionism

365 consecutive days of running at least two miles done, and 2,601 miles of running for the year. I set a goal to run every day this year. I just ran six more miles, putting me at 2,601 miles for the year, and 365 consecutive days or running at least two miles every day. I'm glad I completed the streak, but I will not be continuing. I used streak running as a means to increase my total mileage, which has long been a goal. I was successful in that goal, as I surpassed my previous highest mileage from 2015 of 2,485 running miles. The obvious caveat is that this is running miles, as I doubt I will ever cover more miles on foot that in I did hiking ~6,000 miles round trip hike on the CDT in 2007. It's less than half the yearly mileage, but in 2007 I walked from sun up to sun down for 178.5 days, while in 2019 I had a mortgage, held down a full-time job, and published a book and a couple papers, so I feel like I'm doing a decent job of getting after it given the constraints. ...

I've run my last race of the year: a 5-mile turkey trot in Alexandria, VA. I did as much speed work as I could in the twelve days between Richmond Marathon and the turkey trot (which is not much), but I finished in 32:16. I'm happy I went under 6:30 pace, but more importantly, MRB beat me. He warned me not to start too fast, and then I immediately went and started too fast! I just don't feel like waiting for the people who clearly shouldn't be near the start to slowly filter out--I'll go around the now, please and thank you. So he passed me after about 3/4 miles, but then I kept him in sight the whole way. I felt like maybe I was gaining on him in the last mile straightaway, and then I definitely was gaining on him with about a quarter mile to go when our fellow high school friend was loudly cheering us on and enjoying the intense chase. But I was gassed, and there were too many turns around the school to really know where the finish line was, so he beat me by 10 ...

 Back in January or February, however, when I contemplated trying to break 3 hours in a marathon this year, I didn't think I had enough time to do it in a spring race. I thought I would get somewhere around 3:05, and then try to maintain my consistency over the summer and break 3 at a fall race, either Steamtown or Marine Corps. But then I did end up breaking 3 at Virginia Beach. I signed up for Marine Corps anyway. I figured I should run every big city marathon while I live there at least once (though I never did Oakland or SF.) But then in September I contemplated doing hill repeats for Euchre Bar or speed work for Marine Corps, and I ended up doing mostly neither. Still, I was signed up, and so were 30,000 other people, so I figured it would be fun. My buddy L flew into town to go to a World Series game with his cousin, and he said he'd join me, so it should definitely be a fun time. Except for the weather, as it was supposed to rain a lot. But it was still just a Metro ri...

...and I forgot to train. Euchre Bar Massacre happened again. After heading out to California for Castle Peak in August, and doing reasonably well, my training dropped off in September. I did have two 60+ mile weeks, but mostly was down around 40 per week. I rode the 60-mile WABA 50-States Ride (where you ride a bit of every state-named avenue in the District). That was an interesting way to see the city, and I had fun doing it with the group, but as far as the biking itself goes, it's mostly terrible. I did some pretty lame scouting of the Tuscarora trail, as I was sort of thinking about setting an unsupported FKT on it in the future, but I didn't really enjoy this section all that much.  I also went out to West Virginia and did a 40-mile loop in Dolly Sods Wilderness for my birthday. I'll never get around to blogging about it, but I highly recommend the Sods if you're in the DC area--the northern section is a high plateau  with scrubby windblown trees that brought b...

I wrote the code to transparently and reproducibly run the High Lonesome 100 lottery, which will be conducted tonight (November 15, 2019). The code is available on Github here , and the web app to actually implement the lottery is here . The app has all the details and instructions, but simply put, you just need to pick the seed for R's pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). I don't understand all the gory details of how PRNGs work, but basically, if you write code involving randomly generated numbers, you can set the seed so that every time the code is run you get the same answer. In order to fairly set the seed, the race director Caleb Efta will have public participants roll several 10-sided dice at Laws Whiskey Bar in Denver Colorado tonight. If you didn't set a seed, the code would give you a different answer every time you ran it, so participants couldn't be sure which run the actual results came from. If we just picked some arbitrary seed (my usual is 1492) then...

So my May races sucked, but then I went to Pennsylvania and had a good time running the Laurel Highlands Ultra .  I got a ride up with a member of the early-morning-type-A runners and his pacers/crew, and it was fun to talk to them and not have to get up stupid early to ride the bus to the start. The race is a point-point that is 100% singletrack along the Laurel Highlands trail, with the exception of the first mile or so to get out of a State Park and its parking lot and such. The park has a nice small waterfall at the start. There are nice views. The ferns are really big, and there are a lot of them. Seriously though, it's really cool. I would love to go get some spores or a small sample and try and grow them in my backyard. The trail was runable for the most part. I kept telling myself to run every runable step, and for the most part I did. I stopped at one aid station after about 40 miles and changed my shoes and socks and felt refreshed. I dropped a friend fro...

After my disappointing performance at Farm Park, I didn't really have high hopes for Massanutten Mountain Trails100 . It was going to be hot again, and the course is very rocky. This rocky And this rocky So you basically have to look at the ground the whole time. And I feel like you're using your core a lot more, almost like you're squatting or in a wrestling stance, in a much different running form than usual, and it really wore me out. Also, my knee quit working at about mile 24. Sucks I blame my La Sportiva Akasha shoes, that have a high (12mm) heel drop that I'm no longer used to. The aid stations were well-stocked, so I was able to ice it and just walk. It was really hot (85, 90? Can't quite remember) and humid. I walked and walked, and it got dark, and I started losing my mind a bit, and I just wanted to lay down somewhere, anywhere, and sleep, but every time I sat down I found ticks, or another runner would pass me and ask me how I was doing,...

It's almost November, and I still haven't written about my May or June races. In March and April I performed well at Shamrock Marathon and Cherry Blossom Ten Miler, finally breaking 3 hours in the marathon and running just over my goal 6:30 pace in my first 10-miler ever. I thought I had a lot of leg speed built up that I'd be able to use in ultras throughout the year, kicking butt at the Massanutten 100-miler in late May, for example. That did not happen, however. Farm Park Challenge May 4 I ran the Farm Park Challenge . It's a bit like a last-person-standing race, but instead it's a fastest-person-on-the-last-lap race. You run a 5.2-mile loop every mile, and there are multiple races held concurrently, a 3-hour, 6-hour, and 10-hour. The last hour/loop of each event is the real race, you just have to run a full loop every previous hour to compete in it. It sounded fun and some runners in the group-for-which-I-cannot-wake-up-early-enough-but-of-whom-I-am-jealous w...

Gf and I are back from six days in the Tahoe area. First, why did we ever leave California? We flew to Reno, arrived late and went straight to our hotel. The instant we left the next morning to walk around the riverfront and Midtown areas, we remarked how nice the dry heat and sunshine was. People like to mock Reno, but I dig it. I immediately regretted not bringing my packraft, since between the Truckee and Walker Rivers (the Truckee goes right through downtown Reno), I could have hit some really fun rapids. With a rental car, a second driver, and free checked bags on Southwest, it really was a golden opportunity for easy shuttling and great water. Oh well, hiking and running was plenty. Walking around downtown Reno I thought "it's nice now, but it's probably crazy busy with cars on a regular work day," assuming it was Sunday morning. It was actually Thursday morning, so downtown Reno is apparently just not busy, which is fine by me. We also walked around Midtown, ...