Adventures in Onionism

I tried to run five 100-milers in 2024. The last (UTMR) was cancelled due to landslides that even Swiss engineers couldn't fix quickly, so I ended up with four. February 23: Orcas Island 100 (29:53) June 7-8 Scout Mountain 100 (31:37) July 20: TRT 100 (31:45) August 30: UTMB Mont Blanc (39:26)   In addition, I ran Paiute Meadows 50K (May 11, 5:58) and did the 11-peak version of Desolate Peaks (August 17). I feel like the first half of the year was great--Orcas was early in the year to get me going, a nice social race, and a fun trip to the San Juan Islands and a visit to Seattle friends I hadn't seen in a while. The summer was good, with two hundreds and about two hundred miles in the Brooks Range in Alaska.    Then at UTMB, it was fun to experience the insane Tour de France-like fan crowds once, but I don't think I'll bother trying to get into it again. It was nice to hang out with Lucas' mom Jan in Chamonix, and travel around Switzerland by myself, but UTMR gettin...

I'll recap 2021 soon, but what should I run in 2022? As per usual, I'd like to run about one race a month, but I don't mind stringing together back to back weekends if it makes for a nice vacation. I didn't get into States or Hardrock, and I don't have major hiking plans, since my usual hiking partner did get in.  For the first time I'm thinking about a European race. Likely at most one trip to conserve PTO for a trip to Alaska sometime in the future, but I put a bunch of the UTMB World Series races on the list--they look gorgeous. I'm assuming I'll be based in Southern California, but that depends on a lot. Anybody have any thoughts? Bold =already signed up, or just mandatory; *=Western States qualifier Jan 23: Calico 30K/50K (about as local as a race gets)  Feb 5: Sean O’Brien 100K* Feb 13: Black Canyon 100K* March: Barkley (waitlisted, very unlikely--2023 or 2024 more likely) April 3: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler (Great time to be in Washington...

SKIP this paragraph if you understand the Backyard/last-person-standing race format: Start. Run a 4.16 mile loop in under one hour. Stop and wait for the clock to strike the next hour. Repeat the loop. If at any time you fail to complete the loop in under one hour, or fail to start the loop at precisely the top of the hour, you're out. Repeat until only one person completes the loop. This could take days. No, you can't bank time. That's why I said "Stop and wait." Read the BBC article if you're not following.  -- Well, it's definitely not me; I was not the last person standing. By the time the race ended, I had slept for the better part of 20 hours. The only race I've ever won was the 2015 4 MPH Challenge, also a last person standing event, so I went in thinking I could do well. I'd wanted to try another for a while, and a DC race organizer/runner friend told me about the Capital Backyard in 2019 before it even officially became a thing. I signed...

This year isn't starting off very well, neither for me as an Elizabeth Warren fan, nor for me as a runner. I strained my hamstring in the very race I wrote about in my last post where I laid out this year's plans. I rode my bike to and from the Al Lewis 10-miler, and felt fine, but then later that day when I was sitting on the couch, I felt much sorer than usual, and it hasn't gone away. I managed to do two big runs the following weekend: Saturday I ran the JFK 20K and then ran 13.5 miles home afterward. Sunday I ran the Waterfall 50K out on Massanutten with a two-mile shortcut in the middle of the race. I nearly shat myself and had to divert into the woods on the 20K, so my time wasn't going to be great regardless of injury, but I was only running 8:10-8:20 miles, and definitely still felt the muscle strain. Out on Massanutten I was OK jogging downhills and road sections, but flat sections were tough because Massanutten is so rocky that you have to lift your leg higher...

Here's my list of races for 2020. I'm starting off the year with some short road races put on by DC Road Runners. I ran the Al Lewis 10-miler in 69:40 yesterday. That's not nearly as good as 2019 Cherry Blossom, but I did do sub 7's, which seems decent for not having done one single ounce of speed work since the Turkey Trot. Hopefully these low-key races will both inspire me to do serious speed work and act as speed training themselves, so that I can do well in March at a local 50K and the DC Rock and Roll Marathon. (I'm not sold on or signed up for either of those yet--if there is another comparable area marathon in March I could be convinced to do that instead.) April I take off on the Hayduke Trail.  May I'll come back and will hopefully have lots of time on my feet as training for the Capital Backyard last person standing race. I suspect I may die of chafing, but if I can keep that in check, I think I can do very well at a last person standing race. ...

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 ...

Just got home back to Williamsburg after setting a PR and breaking 3 hours in the Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon. I told people when I got a job in DC that though I'd miss the Berkeley trails, I'd be fine, because I'd just get fast again instead. I'm happy to say that appears to be what I did. Drove to Williamsburg Friday and got a wonderful 11 hours of sleep. Saturday I tried out my absurdly expensive Nike Vaporfly shoes for a quick two miles with George, then gf and I drove to Virginia Beach to pick up our packets (she ran the half) and meet my cousin and her husband for dinner. George came along and goofed around on the beach a bit--dogs are allowed all day during the off-season. Despite this being at least my 85th marathon-or-longer, I was nervous for this, since (A) it was the first race in a while I had put real pressure on myself to perform, and (B) relative to my normal 50's and 100's, there's no time to make up time in a three-hour race. One ...

Remember how I hiked in Montana, the Canadian Rockies, and Alaska last summer? I micro-blogged with my phone during much of it, and posted photos on Instagram when I had reception, but life happened (I bought a house) and I never really got around to writing much or organizing photos.  Until now! Here are my favorite photos from Montana and the GDT , and from Alaska . In Montana and Canada I had a separate camera in addition to my phone, so maybe in six months I'll also organize those; right now you just get phone shots. That camera drowned in the Muddywater River on the last day of the GDT, so I only had my phone for Alaska. (Never mind that my phone also broke two days later, it got replaced.) Anyway, John Z is working on a series of videos of our time in Alaska, I'll let you know when that comes out; it will put my stuff to shame. Check out his YouTube channel --he's quite talented. I made a resolution to run every day this year. I made it through January. It is sup...

Lottery season is upon us. I've gone through different mental phases in the past 9 months or so since I knew I'd be moving to DC. At first, I decided I would survive mentally by becoming fast again. Once upon a time (2004 or so) I was sort of fast, and I ran a 3:00:23 marathon, and those 23 seconds annoy me, especially since I could have broken 3 had I not enjoyed myself too much from mile 24 to 25. I had ~15 minutes for the last 2.2, but the first mile of that was probably my slowest mile of the entire day, and I couldn't make it up in the last 1.2. To get fast again, I would have to run more road, do track workouts, and I probably couldn't bring George along, since he wants to stop and pee all the time. Somehow, I thought this was what I'd want to do in DC, because if trails suck or are nonexistent, then I have to run road, and if I run road, then I might as well do it fast to get it over with. After thinking that for a few months, I started thinking that ma...

It's Tuesday, I'm back in Berkeley, and I just ran my first Hardrock last Friday/Saturday in 34:42. I wanted to record thoughts immediately after the experience, because it was hard , and now that it's been a few days, I'm already forgetting the pain. [I don't want kids, so you'll have to insert your own reference to childbearing here if you so desire.] Start The race started at 6AM. I slept reasonably well the night before in my truck just behind the school gym where the race starts--Silverton is very low key, so it's easy to dirtbag inside the city limits. I did, however, have a bit of GI non-normality, but it didn't seem like a big deal. I started in shorts, T-shirt, and a windshirt. As expected, the windshirt soon became too warm, likely because of the clouds that were obviously going to bring rain sooner rather than later. First Climb I started maybe 30-40 deep in the field, going faster than I'd ever climbed in training, but not feel...