7 sisters: Spit you up and spit you out

This was only the 2nd time I offically raced this course. I have run the course many times in training. Either way it was never this freaking hot anytime I had previous ran this course. Now I ran 2:42 and some change and was 50th overall and I would have to say I should be very hapy with this time. Considering the conditions (heat), lack of training, (20 miles in the 2 weeks leading up the the event), missing two big toe noenails, and going off course for about 5 minutes what do I have to complain about. It should be nothing but as always I would have liked to have at least broken 2:30. All I can say is that is has to be one of the toughest trail races out there. This course is brutal and if you not prepared it will spit you up and spit you out. This was eveident on the course as I have never seen so many people walking during a race. I passed many people who were just standing still on the uphill sections simply because their legs would not allow them to walk up the hill. I had the same issue going up mt nononuck, the long steep section after the water stop on the way back. My legs just didnt want to carry me. Anyways, this years race sucked!!! I loved it and will do it again for sure but one thing is for sure, I must get more training in. I will say once you have a baby it changes everything for the better so if I can still do what I did with the training I do and stil have as much fun with my baby and wife then thats all I care about!!! I also couldnt believe the amount of DNF, 42 is what was listed on coolrunning. Thats amazing. I also want to send out a shout to the Old Buck, My father Walter, who finished the race in 6 hours and 3 minutes. At 67 years old and 2 bad knees he still wasnt last. Next up Northfield and BillyGoat 2010!!!

Grand Canyon: South Rim to Colorado River (and then some)

Well I just got back from two weeks of training at the Grand Canyon National Park. I was there for work and what better place to go to training than at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The training was awesome but what was better than that was being at one of mother natures hughest playgrounds. Every morning before class I ran on the Rim trail that runs along the south rim from Mather Point to the Bright Angel Lodge. It was awesome because where I was staying was less than a 1/2 mile from the rim's edge. Every morning I also got the opportunity to run along side Elk and Deer. No Bighorn Sheep =(!!!! Seeing the sun rise over the canyon rocked!!! Besides running on the rim trail I also ran around the village.
When class was over, the training facility had mountain bikes, so I x-trained and rode a bike in the afternoon. My longest jaunt was from the village all the way out to Hermits Rest. Round trip it was a 18 mile bike ride. I finished at sunset and that was amazing.

The highlight of the trip was my 31 mile adventure in the canyon on Saturday. I ended up running 26 miles and walking the final 6 for a total of 31. My original plan was to see if I could do a rim to rim to rim. However, after reaching phantom ranch and heading up towards cottonwood falls, I knew I wasnt supposed to do that today. My mind was saying go for it, but my big toe and lack of proper training told me to not attempt it. So I didnt. I did see lots of rim runners that morning. I started out at 5 am in the darkness and my adventure was bright angel falls trail to tonto east, tonto east to south kaibab tip off point, south kaibab tip off point to phantom ranch, phantom ranch up north kaibab about 2 1/2 miles, turned around and went back to phantom ranch, doodled around the river trail, up bright angel to indian garden, out to plateau point, turned around and hiked out to the bright angel saloon. The last 5 miles I hiked. My big toe was spent, and I two weeks later I am missing a toe nail. It was awesome, and I did learn a few things. I carried way to much stuff. My pack was way to heavy. I was too well prepared. I could have cut my food supply by half. Also by having a heavy pack it slowed me down a lot. I should have worn lighter trail shoes, I wore my la sportivas and they were too heavy. Those trails are easy running and if you know how to trail run you could wear light shoes. I also had too many extra clothes, it was cold in the morning but once I started running for an hour and the sun came up I was down to shorts and a teeshirt. You hear all these horror stories about people dying in the canyon because they werent prepared, so I heeded on the side of caution. However, like last time when Sheila and I hiked out in 2007, I passed large people or people smoking and they were walking down. They had no business being in that canyon! Anyways round trip was 8 hour 15 minutes. Awesome trip and glad to be home to Sheila my little Anna.

Back to Business

Well what a winter it has been. I only did 1 snowshoe race this past winter and that was Curly's in Pittsfield. Training and racing has been tough since our daugter was born on Dec 30th. Not to mention having to work a jump schedule made exercising more difficult. I have been able to get out on my off days and now with day light savings only one week away and much warmer temps, well at least in Wellfleet, I am considering myself back in business. To make sure I would stick with it I registered for the New Bedford 1/2 in 2 weeks. Not enough time to properly train but I know I can do it. To make sure I could I went out yesterday and ran 13.1 miles through the South Wellfleet Wildlife Management Area. All but maybe 2-3 miles were on the old roads and trails. It took me 1:49:29 but I wasnt pushing, I was actually just dogging it to see how my body felt after doing that many miles. My fastest mile was 7:45 and that was when I ran on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. All in all I felt good, hungry when I got home but this morning my legs feel great. So with New Bedford on the horizon, I have no plans for a time. Last time I ran that race I did 1:27:34 in 2004. I think I was 24 at the time. I have no plans on beating that time as I am in no shape so we will see what happens.

On other notes, Sheila and I, and now also Anna, did a Lighthouse walk on Sunday afternoon. It was our 9th Cape Cod Lighthouse and Anna's First. Actually you could say it was also Anna's 9th because she was inside Sheila when we did all the other ones. We hikes 2 miles to Stage Harbor Lighthouse in Chatham MA. We pushed Anna in the Bob's running stroller over a packed down dirt road. We love the stroller as it allows us to be outside together with her!! This lighthouse is no longer in use but still a lighthouse. Our plan is in two weeks when we go to New Bedford to try to grab a few more lighthouse on the way home. Also we are going to visit the New Bedford Whaling Museum National Historical Park. We want to visit as many National park Service sites as possible with our daughter!!!

Lighthouses to Date: As a Family ( I Have a bunch from Minnesota and Wisconsin: They dont Count!

1. Wood end: P-Town

2. Race Point: P-Town

3. Nauset Light- Eastham

4. Highland Light- Truro

5. Three Sisters- Eastham

6. Chatham Light- Chatham

7. Lewis Bay- Hyannis

8. West Chop- The Vineyard

9. Stage Harbor- Chatham

Well off to get ready to work.

Family Visit

Blizzard in Wellfleet/1st Snowshoe of Season

Well after all the hype we heard on the radio and tv, we on the outer cape got blasted! Sheila and I were hoping the baby didnt decide to come today since there was no way we would be driving to Hyannis in a blizzard. So what did we do insted, snowshoe and xc ski. The road down to Marconi Beach was shut down so what better a place to xc ski and snowshoe. With only 4 days away from the baby's due date I was a little scared to actually go down there with Sheila in case something happened, but then I said what the heck, What better a story to tell the little one when he or she gets older. The beach is about 2 miles from the house so I put on Sheila's snowshoes (Mine are broken since Hawley and I still havent got a new pair) and Sheila strapped on her Xc ski's. With 15 inches of snow on the ground already we geared up in our cold weather and made our way down to the beach! The snow was a heavy wet snow but it wasnt the kind that you could make snowmen and it was very difficult snowshoe running in it. After a short sprint I just hiked and that was perfect for Sheila and I. The wind was blasting but that didnt bother us. Sheila did awesome! With all the gear on she hardly appeared pregnant. It was really weird being down at Marconi beach as it was now the middle of a blizzard. Only 5 months ago it was summertime and in the 90's and today the dunes edge by the beach appeared like something out of science fiction novel. Actually it seemed like the Top of Mt Washington with all the drifting snow and rime on the signs. The ocean waves were destroying the dunes.

The jaunt took us about 2 hours and it was just so cool being out ina blizzard. At the house we had about 20 inches. Absolutly Awesome!!! The drifts in some spots were about 3 feet. Once we finished we went over our neighbors for cookies and Guiness (well just me). The plan is to do it again tomorrow, Gotta love winter!!!

Turtle Rescue

Today at work my boss and I did a drive on the Cape Cod Bay side of Wellfleet to see if any turtles had washed ashore from the previous days storm and the Northwest winds. Well much to our surprise we rescued 9 turtles. 8 Kemp Ridleys and 1 LoggerHead. The photo is me with the loggerhead. These turtles became cold stunned because they didnt leave the Cape Cod bay waters soon enough to make the swim back to the Gulf waters. When the bay waters get cold the turtles just stunned and end of washing ashore. If they are not rescued they are sure to die. Of the nine we rescued, who knows if they will all live but without are help they would all have surely died. The loggerhead was in the top 5 of loggerheads ever picked up on Cape Cod Bay beaches. It wasnt weighed when we dropped it off so who knows, we may have picked up and saved the biggest loggerhead ever stranded on the beach. This was a very good time and felt great especially since the Kemp Ridleys are an Endangered Species. Cant believe this is my part of my job! Hell yeah!!! The bottom photo is all the turtles in the truck getting ready for transport to the Audobon Society.

Mt Tom Score-O

Lighthouse

With a trip to Martha's Vineyard a few weeks back, Sheila and I decided that since we are now living on the Cape, we need to make it a point to visit all the lighthouses on Cape Cod. We started with East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard when we came up with this brilliant idea. We had taken the ferry to the island for our anniversary and since we didnt want to pay for a taxi or rent a car, we walked everywhere, which was fine for us. On the last day we were on the island we walked to the East Chop Lighthouse and while we were there we started talking about how since we are currently living in Wellfleet while I work for the National Seashore, it would be cool to make the most of our time on the Cape, before I transfer to a different Park Service site, and hit all the lighthouses. So with decided we are counting East Chop as #1.

Once we got back the mainland we thought that it would be cool to get another lighthouse so we drove to Chatham to get the Chatham Lighthouse. However, when we got there the sun had already set and we were not able to get a photo so we decided that it didnt count and we would go back at a later date since we only live 30 minutes from there. That made us start to come up with rules for getting lighthouses. We must touch it if possible, get a photo of both of us together with the lighthouse, and run or walk to it if that is possible. Chatham Lighthouse for example is right next to a parking lot so in that case we its counts. However in the cases of Wood End, Long Point, and Race Point in Provincetown MA we must walk or run to them. Taking a boat or driving oversands to one of those wouldnt count. Also if the lighthouse is open and we must go to the top, unless they are trying to rape us with an outrageous fee for going up it. So with those basic rules set in stone we are gonna hit up all the lighthouses on the Cape. Plus if we go somewhere elsewhere in the country or world, we must hit up a lighthouse if one is on the course of our adventure.

So today, Sunday November 8th, on the 20 year anniversary of the Berlin wall falling down, Sheila and I knocked off two more lighthouses. After having a superb breakfast at the Wicked Oyster in Wellfleet we made tracks up to the National Seashore in Provincetown. Our plan was to first knock off Race Point. We knew we wouldnt be running so a nice long walk on the beach would be the way we would be doing it. Upon arriving at the Race Point Beach Parking Lot, we saw a Interpretive person from the Nat'l Seahsore and asked him how far it was to the Race Point lighthouse and he said, "Its like 2 miles and its very strenous." I wouldn't recommend walking there." What the Heck???? Sounds like the person that told Sheila and I at the Grand Canyon that it was silly and dangerous to think we could hike down to the Colorado River and back in one day. Ah Hello, we did it in 8 hours round trip with breaks. I think people under estimate what they can do if they try or want to. So with that said, Sheila and I walked the ocean side beach to the Race Point Lighthouse which would count as our official #2 Lighthouse of our mission. It took us 43 minutes to walk there and we encountered very few people which on a day like today was awesome! Today was an Indian Summer day with temps in the 60's and a warm breeze that had us in tee-shirts. However, when we stopped walking we were glad to have some jackets. After arriving at the Lighthouse we took a few photos and did what we needed to do to make this lighthouse count. The distance we walked, as I later measured on Favoriterun.com ended up being 2.12 miles one way. That distance in the time it took us isnt too bad. Considering we were walking on the sand and that Sheila is 8 months pregant I'd say a little over 20 minutes a mile is good. While there we also bumped into a nice foreign couple who had a hiking backpack that you throw your little Bambino in and bring him along on the hike. It was a german made pack but it was really cool looking and they let me where it, minue there kid, but I think our Baby K will love it when we get it for him/her. So before we left I had to get some time in to play as you can see by the following photo. After that we walked back. The walk back took us 44 minutes, We had a positive split which we dont like. However, we messed up when we got back to the Race Point Parking Lot and we walked to the parking lot through the wrong access point and that put us further away from the car so in actuallity we walked more distance on the way back so a minute longer to walk back actually doesnt give us a poistive split because had we not messed up we been back to the car quicker.

Once back at the car we drove the through the Provincelands Dunes and stopped at Cumbys for some H2O and gatorade, guess who got the water? and also some skittles. Once we finished that sidetrack mission to fuel up, we drove down Moors Roads to walk over the breakwater to tag lighthouse #3, Wood End. The one thing about the rocks at the breakwater is that the distance over the rocks to land looks a lot closer than you think. Another thing we didnt take into consideration is the tides. So with one more lighthouse to tag today we started walking across the rocks. For me it didnt seem to be a problem but it was much tougher for Sheila esp. since she is pregant, a little front sided heavy in the belly and the unevenness of the rocks gave her much more difficulty.

After crossing the mile long breakwater rocks, I started to think about the tides and how the tide was coming up and in a few spots the tidal waters might cover the rocks in the low spots. I then asked a guy with a rat looking dog when high tide was and he said 3:30. It was now 2:00 so I figured we had enough time to tag Wood End and get back. After climbing off the rocks we walked through the wet sand to the nearest crossover point to get to the lighthouse. When we finally got to the lighthouse we were starting to feel tired, one from the walking in the sand, plus the sun beating down on us, and for Sheila, a baby morphing away in the tummy. After our family photo we walked around the lighthouse and I started picking up Beach Glass for our collection and Sheila started to head back. I told her to go ahead and I would catch up since I dont have a life in by belly draining my energy. Oh and our family photo was taken by me steadying the camera on a cinder block. We had asked a couple who was there to take our picture, but they spoke no English and just said germany. We he knew I want him to take a photo of us but he didnt understand the part where I said us and the lighthouse. After he handed me the camera he smiled and said good. I said thank you and then looked at the photo and it was a closeup of me and Sheila. Heck, the picture could have been taken anywhere, so I re-took one of us. After finding some nice pieces of red and brown beach glass I ran to catch up to Sheila, with was tough considering I was wearing my bulky hiking boots. Once I caught up to her at the breakwater rocks I realized we might be in trouble with the tides. As we started walking back to the car I saw the the lowest spots in the brekawater rocks was already covered with water. I had on my boots so I could walk though the water and not get my feet wet. Sheila however was wearing sneakers. Well when she got to the low spot that was already covered with water, I tried to help her across by having her standing on my boots. However, the tough animal she is, she just walked right through the foot deep water covering the rocks. I was like, Thats My Girl!!! She got her feet soaking wet but she sucked it and kept plugging away. I felt horrible because I could see she was really tired esp. with Baby K, but she sucked it up and did it. I said to Sheila when we finished, "This is what we train for" and she finished by saying, "So we sucked it up" I then said, "Thats my girl" After we got back to the car, i later determined that walk was 2.86 miles round trip with a 50 minute return trip back from the lighthouse.

The totals for today was 2 lighthouses and 7.08 miles in 2:55:19. It was a great day and we had fun!! This is what we live for because these are the day of our lives and we are going to enjoy everyday