Adventures in Onionism

Running has been hard this winter. The snowcrete storm at the end of January was followed by nine days with temps not getting above freezing. Trail running required traction devices so I got my screw shoes out of the closet, and eagerly scanned social media and run-group e-mails as we reported on trail conditions and road plowing updates. It reduced my mileage by maybe 20 miles one week and 10 another. Not that bad, but it took a lot of mental energy and reduced quality runs waiting to pass people on single-shovel width sidewalk paths and constantly scanning for ice. I had plans to go run The Wild Oak Trail (Cold TWOT) President's Day Weekend, but the event was cancelled due to snow conditions. I also was stressed by almost getting off the wait list at the last minute for an event in Tennessee which I hadn't planned for. At the last minute since both of those were out, I decided to keep the rental car and dogsitter I had arranged and go to Shenandoah National Park and work on m...

I've long said I don't like repeating races (Western States and Hardrock aside) but I decided to do IMTUF again this year. I ran it in 2015 as part of my 400-mile Onion Slam [ race report ].  2015 was a fire year, so the course was significantly different than the standard at the time. The start was further north at Bugdorf Hot Springs, but the new "Super Course" starts at the sound end at Jug Mountain Ranch, which makes staying at a Bay Area friend's cabin nearby much easier, and made it nice for Amy to come along and make a weekend of it, and meant I'd only seen something like 40% of the course before.  2015 v 2025 course   I trained pretty well, maxing out at two 90+ mile weeks (90+ running, 120+ if you include biking) three and four weeks before the race. I tapered and was well-rested for the race. My goal was 30 hours, compared to 31:46 in 2015. To my pleasant surprise, my friend Zak from Washington state called me the day before the race and let me know ...

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...

Here's my delayed report on UTMB. I finished UTMB this morning in 39 and a half hours. I feel OK but not ecstatic about that. [ My splits are here ] The race is a zoo at the start. There were literally no starting corrals, which seems like a massive oversight for a race of 2,500 or 3,000 people. There were a couple signs for people hoping to finish under 35 and under 30 hours, but I think there was no enforcement nor even encouragement to pay attention to these, and not nearly enough room for these people. Family and friends were not kept out of the starting area in any manner. The only chute was after the start, which means runners pass through quite a scream tunnel the entire way through town, and up into the first mountains.   The zoo start Zoo aid station Maybe all the way through the first neighboring town of Les Houches up and over Prarion, and down into St. Gervais, the cheering crowd was nuts. Certain stretches felt like the Tour de France. How long could this go on? (The ...

I just got back from running Scout Mountain 100, my 33rd complete 100-or-more mile race, outside Pocatello, Idaho. I also got to visit with a couple Utah friends since I flew through SLC, so it was a nice weekend. I'd say it's a good, tough course. It was unfortunately very hot (high of 89 in Pocatello Friday, 88 Saturday) and coming relatively early in the season that made the heat feel even worse, likely skewing my view of things. Endless field of mule's ears  The course has three major climbs and several additional smaller ones for 22K vert. Two of the big climbs take you to 8500'+ summits (Old Tom and the eponymous Scout Mountain) which had great views and still had a little snow on them, necessitating some fun glissades on Scout. Views are often open in other places even if you're in foothills rather than alpine terrain.  First Summit, Old Tom Friendly guy (whose name I hope is Tom) with big dogs on summit of Old Tom   The trails were in decent, if not wonderfu...

I ran the Paiute Meadows 50K in Susanville, CA last weekend. It's been a while since my last race (late February), so I was really looking forward to this. The RD asked for a few people to car camp at the start line the night before, and I happily obliged so I wouldn't have to wake up at 4am for the drive from Reno. To my pleasant surprise, I had a bizarre dream about my buddy taking me golfing and not wanting to pay for it, instead lying about being a sponsored pro, and digging the lie deeper and deeper when they asked him to play in the celebrity pro fundraiser tournament, etc. I woke up from the dream and had to pee, so I got out of the tent, and saw the northern lights. Beautiful The race started at 6:30 the next morning. There's not much to say about it, it's only a 50K. It was not too hard, with only 4,400 feet of climbing. You go back through the start after 14-15 miles (about halfway), which I did in 2:30. The climbing was definitely stacked in the second half, ...

OK, fine! I'll finally finish this race report.   I ran the Orcas Island 100 at the end of February. In the months since, I've been through a big snowstorm in Reno, been to Yucca Valley, and DC twice. Most importantly, I'm not sore or injured. I struggled through a two-mile run the day before, day after, and two days after the race, and got back up to 70 miles for the weeks since. I'd call the race a success. I signed up for it because I wanted an early season race with a lot of climbing. Orcas provided. There aren't many races in winter due to weather, but Orcas, on one of the San Juan islands in Washington, manages (if sometimes barely). The race is four times around the same 25-mile loop, each with four aid stations and four big climbs, for a total of 26,500 feet of climbing. The course is shaped like a neck pillow with a lobster claw attached to it. If that doesn't make any sense to you, that's how it felt running it. The trail is almost always under tre...

To answer my own question from last time, I signed for UTMB. And UTMR. Yes, they're only six days apart. It'll be fun. Right now I'm more anxious about Orcas 100, which I'm running this weekend. Should I bring my newer small pack or my larger worn out old pack?  Why haven't I bought a replacement larger pack yet? Because nobody makes anything to carry hard-sided bottles anymore and I like hard-sided bottles because they're larger and insulated. Why do I get nervous before races lately, despite having run more than 100 ultras? I don't know. Orcas, Paiute Meadows 50K, Scout Mountain, TRT, UTMB, UTMR I've been training quite consistently, if not especially hard. I've run 475 miles so far this year, a minimum of two every day, and more than 60 every week, except for last week when I was tapering and ran 45 or so. I've had almost no alcohol this month, and I've been fairly good (but not great) about mixing in hamstring exercises. My hamstring felt...

2023 Races: I ran five ultras this year. That doesn't seem like all that many to me. Looking back at my Ultrasignup results, I've run a low of four (2014) and a high of eleven (2015) ultras since I got into the sport. (Aside from 2020 when everything was cancelled.) Black Canyon 100K, 60K Double Silver State 50K Western States 100 Crazy Mountain 100 Chicago Marathon Hidden Valley Hammer 10K I was pretty happy with the Black Canyon double in February. It meant my body was finally back to normal after Tor in 2022. (I'm not happy that there was absolutely no recognition by the race org of the double, despite promises to the contrary, so I'll just keep howling into the void about that--add it to my "Just serve soy sauce flavored ramen. It's vegetarian and tastes just as salty!" evergreen ultra complaint.) I was happy with Silver State 50K until the day after when my hamstring threw a fit. I think I can no longer run a race the day after a nine-hour drive. I wa...

Chicago Marathon When I was planning my races for the year, I thought that after my June and July 100s, I'd switch over to speed training, and try to set a PR at the Chicago Marathon in October. It was an excuse to visit my good friend in Chicago, it's a flat and fast course, and after Boston would be the only one of the World Majors that I've run.  I needed some time in late July and early August to recover from Crazy Mountain 100, so that took a couple weeks. Then I traveled to DC and back to Yucca Valley, and tried to do some mile repeats there, but I also just wanted to go run trails in Joshua Tree National Park as part of my project to run every maintained trail in the park. Then finally in September when Amy and I had a weekend with no travel where I could train, I didn't want to spend my birthday weekend running a flat or paved trail, so of course we went camping in the Sierra and I did a long mountain run instead. It wasn't optimal training to try and run a ...