Adventures in Onionism

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 ...

With the race basically cancelled, I took advantage of the gorgeous weather Friday and ran the ~30 miles from Grächen to Zermatt. I ran into several other runners from the race out doing their own thing. I stayed high along the Tour Monte Rosa/Europaweg, and it was gorgeous. A bunch of the trail is blasted into cliffs or requires stairs, bridges, or ropes. The valley itself was incredible, and that's without even considering the Matterhorn, which is so amazing it's hard to believe it's real.  Took the train and bus from Zermatt back up to Grächen and collapsed in bed after an excellent, exhausting day. The race director had organized a 50K for Saturday starting at 4AM. I saw most of the high parts of it on my own on Friday, and the other parts were running along gravel paths along the valley floor, so I had no interest in the race. Instead I enjoyed a leisurely morning coffee and pastries, and then headed around the corner into the Saas Valley. The only road to the valley i...

UTMR was supposed to be 170km and start at 4AM Thursday. Then the weather at the pass and glacier crossing to Italy (Theodul Pass) was forecast to be too bad, so the race was delayed to Friday at 6:30AM (then 4AM) and rerouted to just be in the Zermatt and Saas valleys, and 132km. Just now, we've been told the Saas valley is cut off completely. The race is not starting Friday. It *might* start Saturday.  My flight home is Monday morning from Geneva. The weather is supposed to be good Friday and Saturday, bad again Sunday. A few of us in the race group accommodations might do the Zermatt out and back tomorrow (Friday).  What to do? This sucks. I'm glad I'm not a high elevation mountain climber--waiting out storms is a bitch.

I ran UTMB. It was fine. I'll write a report later. Afterwards, I cleaned up, cheered the final finishers, shouting "dae-han-min-guk" (대한민국) at the South Koreans, and got a veggie burger with Jan. I took a train to Vallorcine and then Martigny, Switzerland and stayed in a crappy hotel near the art museum. The next day I didn't go to the art museum because I don't really care for the impressionists or antique automobiles. I also didn't go to the St. Bernard dog breed museum because even though I love dogs, I don't particularly care for purebreds (even if St. Bernards seem pretty cool as far as breeds go). I sat at a cafe, but unfortunately outside is where everyone smokes rather than enjoying fresh air, so that's weird. I got a McVeggie at McDonald's because McDonald's piloted their US veggie burger in *Texas* and, surprise, it didn't do so well. It was decent as a crispy chicken sandwich substitute, but like all McDonald's sandwiches, i...

I slept for another 17 hours with a little break for breakfast and a shower, and now Lucas' mom Jan and I are on the train to Cham from Les Houches. I need to turn in my drop bag and then line up, and that's it. Hopefully this 6pm start will go better than my first two (Grindstone and Standhope). I think sleeping until 1 pm is my best hope. Yesterday I checked in, was given my empty drop bag, bought some ultralight waterproof over mitts and extra water capacity to try and lighten my pack and meet the extra "heat kit" requirements.  (There are numerous specific gear requirements. I didn't game/optimize as much as I should have. Panty hose and surgical gloves as tights and waterproof gloves, etc. More on that in a future post, perhaps.) Anyway nothing much to report yet, just trying to stay out of the sun until the 6pm start.

I'm in Les Houches, France, getting ready to run the UTMB 100-Miler (actually 106). I took a red-eye Sunday night from Reno to Denver to DC. Then Tuesday I took a red-eye from DC to Geneva. Scott Jurek was in business class on my flight, and the lady I say next to was a runner's mom headed to crew him. I took trains from Geneva airport to Geneva downtown to St Gervais Les Bains La Fayet to Les Houches, all with under five minutes to spare for transfers (man, Europe is so civilized). I couldn't check in yet, so I headed up to Chamonix, which is quite a zoo this week, and watched TDS runners finish, and scoped out where I would need to go for check-in, but also was so exhausted that I collapsed and napped in the grass for a bit.  Finally I checked into my room and went to bed around 5pm. I woke up multiple times, but thankfully I slept mostly well FOR 16-17 HOURS!  Snuck in under the wire for breakfast, and now I'm headed to check in. It's hot this weekend, so the ext...

 Did I go to Alaska? Man, that feels like forever ago. As soon as I got back, I got to work on the house in Reno that Amy and I bought. We closed before Alaska but the sellers needed a short rentback. As soon as we saw the house empty I realized there was a bunch of work to do. We painted the whole interior, we had an electrician put GFIs on every circuit and improve wiring, had HVAC people do their thing, and then of course after we painted and moved into the new place and spent too much time cleaning the rental we were moving out of, the electrician did more work requiring drywall repair and repainting. At least we know the paint color--Swiss Coffee!  The most stressful thing was installing a new exterior front door. God, so stressful. I would trade a lot of stats knowledge for just a little carpentry skills. The new door closes well and is plumb and level and square and true, but I put pressure treated lumber under it instead of a PVC sill, and the latch side reveal is a li...