Steven Tursi

MMT 100 and Day at the Fair

2009-12-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

I had some downtime at work on Monday afternoon, and, on an impulse, I decided to enter the lottery for the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 mile endurance run. This technical Virginia race is considered one of the most difficult 100-mile runs in the Eastern United States, and in fact is the only eastern race recognized as a qualifier for Hardrock.

The lottery process is unique, and as someone who normally isn't a fan of lotteries, I've gotta say I like this one. When you register, you are randomly assigned a number between 0 and 999. They publish everyone's name and number on their web site. Then you wait until 4PM EST the day after registration closes - they take a look at the closing price of the DOW Jones Industrial Average and line everyone up behind whatever that number is.

This year, I was assigned the number 039, and the DOW closed at 10285.97. It was a down day, so the first 180 entrants BELOW 597 got in. I was number 244 in this lineup, missing it by 64 spots. I would be likely to get in anyway, via the waiting list.

However, since the lottery gods decided to not rule in my favor (they never do), I might decide to go back to my original plan and run a much more local timed event in North Jersey that weekend. Rick over at the New Jersey Trail Series is hosting 6,12,24, and 48-hour runs in Sussex county. This event, called 3 Days at the Fair, is really intriguing to me as it's close to home and has that 48-hour option. A 48-hour race two months after Umstead definitely would be interesting - but I'm not 100% that it's a good idea.. However, I am definitely doing at least the 24-hour race that weekend, and perhaps the 48. Or maybe Massanutten.. I have time before I decide.

Knee update: (See original post) Better. Still tight. Not running yet. Stretching it a lot. Hopefully will do some short runs later this week to assess its condition.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

crack!

2009-12-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

Friday evening, I was laying on the couch watching TV. Two hours earlier, I completed an 80-minute hard treadmill run. I was laying on my side such that in order to get up, my knees would come off the couch and rotate down to the floor. As I did so, my knee cracked. It was exactly the same kind of crack that you get when you crack your knuckles - and I a lot of my joints, including my knees, a lot. However, this crack was unusually dramatic. My wife, sitting next to me, heard it loud and clear, and there was about 10 seconds of intense pain.

For the next 24 hours, particularly when I was doing any sort of rotation motion, my knee always felt like it was going to pop again. To guard against this, my brain automatically tried to prevent it from happening. Also, there was a constant dull pain that would intensify whenever I got up from a seated position. I figured it best not to try to run on Saturday, and the situation didn't really improve on Sunday.

By Sunday night, I started noticing a distinct tightness in the back of this leg, particularly in the upper part of my calf, but also in my hamstring. Not sure if it's caused by the pop or by the compensation I've been doing. Either way, I like tightness because I always feel like I can stretch my way back to health - which is exactly what I did this morning for about ten minutes, and things did indeed feel better. Also on Sunday, I had to push a 4500-lb minivan about the distance of a football field (I don't want to talk about why.) Even though I slipped on the ice of few times, my knee didn't complain at all. I take that as good news.

Still, it seems prudent to take a few days or perhaps a week off from running. This bugs me because I've been doing so well. I have been doing lots of training runs in the 4-6 mile range at around 9-10 minutes per mile (which is fast for me.) My improvement in terms of speed has been dramatic and I was eager to spend a winter really hammering this kind of training and hopefully take an hour or two off my marathon time. If this turns out to be something that sidelines me for more than a couple of weeks, I'll have to start from scratch and that will sap my motivation.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

PSA - Quick internet security tip

2009-12-04T10:00:00.009-05:00

Hi everyone!

There's a guy. His name is mike and he lives in ohio. Mike knows a woman named Brittany. Brittany lives in Atlanta, and Mike wants to book one-way travel to Ohio for her. Priceline is as good a site as any to do this, so he logs on, and sets her up. Everything is hunky-dory, until Mike decides to do something rather stupid - presumably because he wants to avoid SPAM, he makes up an email address when creating his account. MY email address.

I immediately responded to the confirmation email when I got it, notifying priceline of the problem. They sent an automated message back saying that mailbox is not monitored. Fine. I took a few minutes, went to their online form and notified them again - and... I was ignored. After a few days, I figured priceline was going to continue to ignore me, so I decided to see what exactly the risk to them was, not to mention Mike from Ohio, and possibly even Brittany from Atlanta.

I found it very easy to reset Mike's password and log into his account. All I needed was his name and access to his email account, which was actually my email account, and his name was included in the trip confirmation.

Here's his account!!

Here's Brittany's flight information!!

Best of all, here's his saved credit card!!

There was nothing (credit card spending limits?) preventing me from booking him and Brittany a $10,000 flight to Siberia on his own credit card. Luckily for Mike, I'm no criminal so I won't do that, but especially since priceline ignored my message to them, I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to publish this example as a common-sense lesson to all - If you consider a company worthy of using your credit card information, they're probably also worthy of being trusted with your email address too.

.. Yes, I know people are concerned about SPAM and keeping their email addresses to themselves, but .. trust me, Priceline isn't the cause of email spam. You'll be ok.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

A computer in the kitchen?

2009-12-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry about missing monday's post.

My friend Courtney has a "million dollar idea."

From http://danceswithcorgis.com/2009/11/21/my-million-dollar-idea-someone-invent-this/:

Basically, I think it would be a great idea for someone to make a LARGE LCD screen which could mount on the wall in your kitchen, connect to the internet and display recipes which you can follow along while you cook. That way, you could pull up any recipe online (where there are zillions) and never have to deal with printing it out or the printed recipe getting covered in water, flour, oil, what have you as you toggle back between checking it and your cooking.

I had already done something like this a couple of years ago, and told her that I'd post pictures of it here. Hi Ceej!

Two years ago, I had an extra 17" LCD monitor, long-since replaced by 22" monitors. It was collecting dust under my desk. I didn't want to throw it away, so I picked up a $30 mounting bracket at MicroCenter and implemented the idea courtney would have two years later.

The bracket bends horizontally in three places so I had plenty of freedom to position it however I needed it, and it folded away neatly when not in use.

I had an extra laptop connected to it, and, as courtney suggested, typically used it to display recipes while cooking something. It worked ok. I also used it to play music in the kitchen using itunes or pandora.

The biggest problem with this setup was - where do I put the keyboard? It had been sitting on the counter most of the time, but I never liked it there. I sometimes thought about getting a mounting bracket and keyboard tray to put underneath the monitor, but never did it. After about a year, the novelty wore off and I "repurposed" that old computer - but the monitor stays where it is, usually folded back behind that wall, out of sight, disconnected.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Report: 2009 Turkey Trot 5-miler

2009-11-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm the blue shirt. Thanks to Carl for the photo.

Interesting race yesterday.

As I wrote in the previous post, I finished the race last year with about 60% of the field in front of me and 40% behind of me. My time was 49 minutes.. just under 10 minutes per mile.

So I walked up to the starting area for this race saw 99% of the 2000-strong field standing in front of the 10 minute per mile area. There was nobody - literally nobody - standing near the "walker" sign behind the 10mpm sign. I decided to take an informal survey of the field. The extreme front - the 5-minute-per-mile sign - looked like it had real competitors - and as I started walking back, by the time I saw the 6-minute per mile sign there were folks standing there who obviously can't run the race that fast. I lined up at the 9-minute-per-mile marker, it looked like that was at 60-70% back from the starting line.

Like last year, the race had 20 minutes of sentimental stage-stuff with honor guards and national anthems, all after the 8:30 scheduled start. When we finally did get under way, it was obvious I made a good choice with my position in the field, it appears that most of the people who lined up at 9mpm were actually capable of running 10mpm, like me. However, I was still shocked at who I passed. Not only were there walkers in front of me who were difficult to pass, but I saw strollers, and even a person with a dog on their leash - all lined up in the middle of a 2000-person field!

And, by the way, if you'd ever like to see a case where races are not limited but really should be, check this race out. The two-lane road is impossibly crowded for for first couple of miles, and when we turn onto the one-lane road, it gets pretty crowded again. Even in the last mile, the crowds made it difficult to pass. It must have been much worse in the main part of the pack. One particularly interesting thing was the police car, presumably there for traffic control, parked on the side of the road a few hundred feet in front of the start. In an already-crowded race, I wondered what the cop was thinking when he left his car there.

I also screwed up, and apparently missed the instruction where I'm supposed to pick up a timing chip at the race, even though they had race packet pickup two days before in a different location. I picked up my packet on Tuesday, and just showed up at the starting line on Thursday morning assuming they didn't have chip timing. Oddly enough, I did go through the packet enough to go through each of the ad fliers and throw most of them out, so I can't imagine how I missed it - but apparently I did.

Anyway, my race went well. My main goal was to finish in under 50 minutes, which I did in 49:47 (net, 50:50 gross). My time last year was 48:34, and my secondary goal was to beat that, which I didn't. Can't complain. I ran hard and did fine.

I make this race sound horrible. It's not. There are better races out there but this one isn't that bad and a lot of friends show up to run it, which always adds to the fun. I'll probably be back next year if I'm in town.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Preview: 2009 Rockland Lake 5-mile Turkey Trot

2009-11-25T10:00:00.002-05:00

The largest running event in Rockland County, every Thanksgiving morning, the Road Runners club here produces a five-mile road race at picturesque Rockland Lake. Offering runners a unique course with challenging hills in the first half and a pancake-flat second half, nearly 2000 folks line up at Rockland Lake's parking lot and run five miles before going home and stuffing themselves silly and sitting on the couch and watching football. It has become a tradition for many, and I've gotta say, it's a lot of fun.

Last year when I did this race, it was my first run after finishing the JFK 50-miler five days before. Any race where I average ten minutes per mile or better is good, and I did really well in 2008, finishing in about 49 minutes, much faster than I expected. My goal in 2009 is to meet or beat last year's time, and I honestly don't think it's going to be easy. Concentrating on long slow distances all year, I've found myself conditioned to slowly walk-run all day if necessary, but speed was gone - my ability to go fast had all but disappeared.

To compensate, for the last few weeks I've focused solely on faster, shorter workouts. Completely devoid of hill-work, I've been spending all of my time at the track or on a treadmill, hammering out sub-ten minute miles for as long as I can go or running 800-1200 meter intervals. Progress has been quick; I'm back to the point where I can maintain that pace for an hour, but that's on a treadmill at 0%. - there is a big difference between 6 miles on a treadmill and 5 miles at Rockland Lake.

Another factor, however, is the crowds. Apparently, most of the folks at this race are rather inexperienced - they simply don't know how to line up for a race. I lined up in 2008 as I always do, near the back of the pack with 10-minute per mile runners. I ended up running on the side of the road, in the grass, for the first half-mile as I passed hundreds of walkers and slower-than-me runners who lined up near the 8 and 9-minute per mile markers. I came in 1046th place out of 1726 finishers, but probably started in around 1700th place. It was really frustrating. In 2009, I will have to line up forward of where I normally go and hope I don't go forward too far. Based on the 2008 results, I guess I'll try to pick a spot with about 60% of the pack in front of me.

Have a great thanksgiving!

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Quick Tip - remembering treadmill workouts

2009-11-23T10:00:00.002-05:00

So one of the little interesting challenges I have is maintaining an accurate, up-to-date log of my runs. Distance, time, and pace. I go out, I do my run, then go home and enter the log on the web site. How do I remember what I did?

For trail runs, I use my forerunner. I get home, sync it with the computer, and it tells me. For track runs, I have some sort of stopwatch and just remember the number of laps I did. And for treadmill runs, I used the notes application on my phone.

I'd get home, look at the most recent run, and enter it in my log.

This worked, but was not without problems. After just finishing a hard run, I'm pretty tired. Entering stuff on an iphone's keyboard without fatfingering everything is hard under normal circumstances - doing it while I can't see straight makes it that much harder.

Last week, a simpler idea occurred to me.

I can just take a picture of the treadmill!

I always have my phone with me because, if I'm working out on a treadmill, I'm definitely listening to something. And it's a lot easier to hit the shutter button than it is to enter numbers on that keyboard. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks and it really works well. Give it a try sometime.

P.S. - Another advantage is, in the photo's meta data, the date and time of the workout is automatically saved for you. It's just there with the photo. And, if you use an iphone or other GPS-enabled device, you even have the location. Pretty nifty.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Just thinking - Calories per hour

2009-11-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

Just thinking..

A post on Amby Burfoot's Peak Performance blog (seen here) gives some very straightforward and interesting insight into the world of running and calorie burning.

For running and walking, your gross calorie burn/mile is directly related to your body weight, so we can produce simple formulas that you can use for your specific weight. In running, your gross calorie burn per mile = .75 x wt in lbs. For walking, it = .57 x wt in lbs.

So - let's take that little tidbit of info and translate it to me.

At 295 lbs, I can run a 10K (6.2 miles) in an hour. That is a 9:40 pace. Using Amby's formula, that burns about 1371 calories.

If I dropped my weight to 250 and tried to burn the same number of calories in that hour, I'd have to run a shade over 7.3 miles in that hour - 8:12 pace.

At 200lbs, I'd have to cover 9.14 miles in that hour. That sounds pretty fast, and at 6:35 minute miles, you'd have to be really fast to disagree.

Now I have no idea whether the calorie burn rate remains constant in the same person given the same level of fitness but different BMI. But, for the sake of stupid-self-indulgence, let's say it does. A 10K run at that 6:35 pace would mean a 40:40 finish time. According to Running Times, a person who runs a 40-minute 10K should be able to run a 3:07 marathon - and it only takes a 3:10:59 to BQ.

This is all meaningless, even without all those assumptions. As I said, I'm just thinking.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Self-Talk

2009-11-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

Steve: "You know, I can run a 10K in an hour now."
Me: "What's so special about that?"
Steve: "Well, I'm nearly 300 lbs."
Me: "Yeah, I guess that's pretty good for 300lbs."
Steve: "So here's the thing - if I can run a 60-minute 10K at 300lbs, how fast could I run it at 200?"
Me: "Interesting. Want to find out?"
Steve: "Definitely."
Me: "So what are you waiting for?"
Steve: "Better question: what the f is wrong with me that I haven't found out already?"
Me: "Yes, that is a better question."

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Report: Team Slug Russell B Cheney 50K

2009-11-16T10:00:00.002-05:00

This race report is a little late, a full 6 weeks after the event. My memory of what happened has started to fade already, and it's high-time I got this thing written or else there will be nothing to write.

(if you can't see the video, please click here)

This was my second Team Slug event, and I'm really glad I came. Got up at 3:30am, was the first customer at my bagel shop, and hit the turnpike two hours before dawn.

When I pulled into the swamps of Delaware, Race Director John was the only one there and for a few minutes it looked like this might be a solo race. I didn't say anything, but recognized something in John that was different than when I saw him previously - he seemed a little melancholy - I didn't think much of it and we hung out until, finally, a couple more people arrived. Three or four of us lined up and got started, and three others showed up 20 minutes after we started and they went ahead, too.

As far as the race itself, there isn't much to say. Weather was perfect, but I was unusually slow due to the Vermont 50 fiasco only 6 days prior. I went at a decent pace for the first 4 or 5 laps, but really slowed down in the second half as my tired legs started complaining. I walked entire laps.

I took the opportunity to experiment with using only perpetuem to fuel my run, but by lap 6 I had really bonked and was craving some real food. John makes no promises to bring food for the runners at his races, but I was really glad that he had a small spread, paid for out of his own pocket, of some junk food to keep us going.

The winner, who was one of the guys who started late, came in just shy of 5 hours (he was given no credit for his late start.) 3 hours later I had my first DFL (dead-last) - winning the "Crazy Horse Award" in Team Slug vernacular - in 7:55.

The wonderful thing about these Team Slug events are that they consider the last-place person just as important as the first, and everyone - all the runners including the winner, family of runners, and the race director - hung out, had a good time, waiting for the last place person - me in this case - to come in. When so many events are wrapping up by the time a guy like me comes in, it's really nice to see that kind of support from a group of guys who accept no money, just come for the fun of it.

That evening, when I got home, I saw this post on team slug's Facebook. John had something on his mind all day, which explained why I thought he was a little quiet in the morning.

On October 3rd, 2009, TSI Co-Founder and Lifetime President "The Hitman" announced the "Death of Team Slug." TSI was exactly twenty years old. The Slug-Dream began in the Spring of 1989 in the seething swamps of Southeastern Virginia near Virginia Beach. TSI was founded by Running Man and Hitman, in honor of T.J.Key and his former Flatlanders Running Club based out of San Diego. In the early years, as in the latter, TSI attracted few participants; often starting fields of 10-15 ultra-runners. The course would usually be lined with strategically placed pint bottles of ginger brandy, coconut-covered marshmallows for markings, and not start until the early evening/dusk hours. The park closed at dark, and the Slugs would be "out there" into the wee hours, not only running, but evading Ranger Rick along the way.

The Slugs, and their shenanigans thrived throughout the mid '90's sprouting informal clubs in PA with Peanut Petley, MD/DC with James Moore and Dan Grayson; teaming with the Runner's From Hell, and Claude Sinclair, in South Carolina, and the grandest club of all based out of Gulf Breeze, FL. The Florida-band of gypsies was led by one Pavvy "The Big Brown Pony" Polur, and survived for years underground; passing itself off as a UF0 Search and Rescue Team. Pavvy's 42-Mile Boggy Bayou Swamp Stomp was never more than a whisper, but has since become ultra-legend. Then in early 2002, the Running Man mysteriously disappeared into the hills of North Georgia, apparently detained along with an eighteen year old female accomplice, on an Indian Reservation for possession of several dozen gallons of illicit fire-water (corn liquor). He hasn't been seen or heard from since.

Sponsoring an average of three non-events per year, the Slugs saw many hundreds of ultra-runners finish a Slug Run ... earning the World-Famous Black, 100% Cotton, Team Slug T-Shirt (Made in USA). TSI was friendly for first-time ultra-runners; with no time limits and no fees. If you didn't quit, you'd be given the opportunity to finish. And finish they did. Over the past twenty years the sport of ultra-running has gone mainstream ... Entry fees for ultras now cost hundreds of dollars, and 100-Mile Runs fill up on-line in minutes. Yet, Team Slug has not changed ... No Entry Fee, No Time Limit, and The Same Olde Black T-Shirt ...

Though Team Slug is now Officially Defunct, the Slugs will continue to occasionally gather, and run. The Slug shirt will infrequently appear at obscure ultra/marathon events around the country, and memories of past events will linger in the hearts of those many hundreds of Slugs who've "earned" that shirt. The Slugs lined up for the very last time this morning, Seven-Strong, just like the old days. Ironically enough, The All-Nighter and Sluggette, were there to "toe the line." Slugs we've come full circle ...What a Wonderful Twenty Years it has been ... It is Done ... THANKS for ALL ...

Apparently, I was the last person to finish an official Team Slug event. If there was ever a time to DFL an event, that was it. That last paragraph "the Slugs will continue to occasionally gather, and run" suggested that this won't be the last time I see John and company, but I really didn't know what he had in mind.

However, the next morning, I saw this:

Fattest Butt 50K set for Jan 2, 2010 (Mourning the Death of Team Slug --- Please be Respectful, and Bring a Black T-Shirt) Multiple Loops through frozen tundra of Central Delaware, well into the heart of winter. If you come bring cold weather gear, 300 feet of rappelling rope, and some emergency alcohol (should you become lost/disoriented in the forest). No Aid, No Fees, No Whining, No Kyle Busch fans, etc,etc,etc...

A week later, a "new" team slug shirt was announced, to be distributed at the FB50K

So it's hard to say what will really become of TSI. My worst fear, that it will fade into oblivion, is hopefully inaccurate. Perhaps John will morph it into something else. Perhaps runs will happen several times per year, completely unofficially, under no banner - "team slug" or otherwise. I don't know - but just to be safe, if you've never done a Team Slug event, you might want to make sure you get to Fattest Butt - it may just be your last chance to participate in something really special.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Steve's bucket list: Hardrock 100

2009-11-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

This is part of a series of posts where I discuss items on my "bucket list." the introduction to the series is here.

The message from Blake Wood came through the ultra list yesterday. This one-line email likely sent a couple hundred people into immediate action, and a few hundred more (me) dreaming. It said,

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 12:09 PM, Blake P. Wood wrote:
The entry application for the 2010 Hardrock Hundred is now available at http://www.run100s.com/HR

- Blake

Hardrock, for me, is the ultimate goal. There simply is no other race that appeals to me like Hardrock does. I find it very hard to describe the combination of challenge and setting in regards to its appeal. The setting - the rugged mountains of Southwest Colorado - for me epitomizes the concept of mountains in general to which I feel a primal attraction. I visited the area once and was immediately taken by it. The late august drive we took from Durango to Ouray through Silverton was one of the most memorable of my life. Given the opportunity, I'd love to move to the area and spend my days there. The photography I've seen suggest that the course is even more impressive than the scenery of that day's drive.

And then, there's the difficulty.

"It's not enough that you run 100 miles. This race has to add 33 thousand feet of elevation to it, too?" - Foster (coworker), looking at the printed elevation profile:

Depending on what you'd consider "monster", there are at least 8 monster climbs on that profile, probably more.

Not that I can attest from personal experience, but it seems to me that there are very few races that an ultrarunner can honestly say will actually test the limits of a homo-sapien's physical endurance. Some of the exceptions are made obvious by their 1-2% completion rates - courses that are just stupid hard, where a sadistic race director throws anything he possibly can your way, just to get you to quit. They're probably beyond the limit for most people. Others with higher completion rates still manage to push people to the limit but are not out of the realm of possibility. Races like Arrowhead or Badwater do it through environmental extremes - cold or heat. Hardrock does it by just throwing a really really hard course at you.

This video gave me a powerful look at the course's difficulty:

(if you can't see the video, please click here.)

I have long been interested in finding out where my real limit is. I've not found it yet, I feel like my DNFs all happened before my real limit (regardless of what I thought at the time.) It seems to me that Hardrock, however, will finally test exactly where the actual limit of my endurance is. That excites me.

What does it take to get into Hardrock? Well, there's a weighted lottery and waiting list, so it takes a bit of luck, at least in the first year you enter. However, before they even let you enter the lottery, you have to have proven yourself capable of finishing, and for most participants, that means completing a real mountain 100-mile race. 100 mile races like Rocky Raccoon, Umstead, and even Vermont aren't considered difficult enough, they want to see something like Angelest Crest, Wasatch, HURT, or Bear to be considered. Since I love the Grand Teton 50 so much, my plan is to return to Targhee in 2010 and try to qualify by running Grand Teton 100, which is considered adequate.

Image credits: Steve and Deb Pero. Thanks for licensing them under Creative Commons, I really appreciate being able to use them here.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

cranberries without sugar experiments, part 1

2009-11-11T10:00:00.001-05:00

Walking through the vast halls of my local Costco the other day, I came across this 3-lb bag of fresh (not frozen) cranberries.

Intrigued (and without much thought), I grabbed it. I knew that cranberries are one of the healthiest foods around, and the opportunity to get them fresh only lasts a couple of months per year.

Now I have never cooked with cranberries before, but I knew from years of thanksgiving dinner experience that these little morsels of health were usually served in a super-sweet sugar glaze that makes them.. less healthy. A few internet searches confirmed this, recipes typically added a whole cup (8-oz) of sugar to a 12-oz package of berries. Wow!! And sugar-free recipes were usually sweetened anyway, just with sugar substitutes.

So, living by the rule to "approach love and cooking with reckless abandon," I did the unthinkable: cooked cranberries completely without sugar. I boiled them for ten minutes until most of them "popped", then let them cool for an hour. Then I force-fed the result to my wife and kid.

The water had turned into a thick glaze, but without sugar.

Steve, unusually tolerant of unsweetened bitter flavors (I eat 100% chocolate.. and prefer it to milk chocolate): "This is ok. I can learn to like this."
Alex, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Which isn't saying much."
Joe (5-years old), "Um, it's ok." do you want more? "No."

Verdict: too tart for most tongues.

I decided to add a little sweetener to what was left. The last time we made pancakes, we used half of one of those little cracker barrel bottles. The remaining half was sitting in our cabinets, waiting to become a science experiment.

It seemed to me, and I was hoping, that when it came to sweeteners, "a little bit goes a long way." So I added that little bit of maple syrup to that big bowl of cranberries, and repeated the force-fed taste-test.

Steve: "Cranberry taste and tart still present, but the overall flavor much more pleasant."
Alex: "Much better. I like it."
Joe: "Um, it's pretty good." Do you want more? "No."

Verdict: not inedible. would serve with dinner.

I have 3lbs of this stuff, so I will experiment more and report back here.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Ultra Listserv Gold Part II: Does running 100 miles ever get easy?

2009-11-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

The wisdom of Lazarus:

Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 12:31 AM

i dont know that it becomes easier, so much as you simply adapt.
as you extend your boundaries, distances get easier.
50 miles makes 50 k easier.
100 k makes 50 miles easier.
100 miles makes 100 k easier.
and the first time you are excited to have "only" 100 miles left,
nothing is the same any more.

i look back on my earlier ultras,
and some of the reasons i felt i had to slow down... or drop out,
and i am amazed that i gave in so easily
when i later discovered how much more i could survive.

you learn to take the pain
wall it off in a corner of your mind
and just keep moving.
it doesnt matter if you are having a good day, or a bad day.
the only difference in the two is your time.
you dont think about quitting
you dont think about finishing.
you just keep moving.
because that is what you do.
that is who you are.

it is a useful skill,
knowing how to simply endure.
it is the ultimate reward for running ultras.

i think some people come by it naturally.
but everyone can acquire the skill.
if i can, anyone can.
no one is less inherently tough than me.

laz

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

2009 is a wrap

2009-11-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

I seem to have caught a cold. It's been with me all week, and hasn't gotten any better. I waited until Thursday, but I reluctantly withdrew from this weekend's 50-mile race.

Which means - 2009 is probably finished, at least with marathons and ultras. The highlight of the year was the PR at Caumsett 50K, and the finish at Grand Teton 50M - I persevered in the latter, and had a really good solid run in the former.

As soon as I get over this cold, I want to dedicate a few months to running faster speeds and shorter distances, because I really feel like that kind of training makes me better at longer distances. Marathons and Ultras are "easy" after a few really hard efforts at sub-half-marathon, and all of my best performances have been in periods of short training runs.

Also, short intense training seems to be the best fat-loss strategy for me, as the "long slow burn" only seems to increase my appetite in compensation.

But for those of you who crave ultra content on this blog, don't fret! With the Umstead 100-mile a mere 4½ months away (crap!!), I'll be certain to be writing plenty about going long as that approaches!

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Meb is not an american?

2009-11-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

This is just an educated guess, but I'll bet that most the people who complain that Meb Keflezighi is not really american, have something in common - they're the ones who've never heard of Meb Keflegzighi before he won the NYC marathon. Letsrun.com cretins notwithstanding, they're not the running fans. Only running fans bothered to watch the 2008 olympic trials that were not televised, but were streamed over the internet. I don't think many fans who watched him struggle with the stress fracture he had and ultimately drop there said, "well, he's not american anyway."

This is what I'm talking about: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/sports/03runner.html

These people don't deserve to have their opinions printed any more than I'd deserve to have my opinions on Cricket printed. I don't know anything about Cricket. Why should my opinion matter?

Fortunately, at least the talking-head haters are getting what they deserve: http://www.businessinsider.com/cnbc-on-nyc-marathon-winner-of-course-he-is-an-american-2009-11.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

What I learned at the NYC marathon

2009-11-02T10:00:00.001-05:00

1. I'm fat
2. I'm hopelessly inconsistent in my training
3. The best way to make your legs feel like they ran a 50-miler without actually running a 50-miler is to run an ashpalt/concrete marathon in trail running shoes.

My official time was 6:10:53, a half-hour off my PR.

great race, btw. crowds were amazing, especially in brooklyn.

full race report later.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am EST and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Preview: NYC Marathon

2009-10-30T10:00:00.001-04:00

I'm finally in. I applied for the lottery 4 times, was turned down all 4 times. This may be the reason I hate race entry lotteries - I just have no luck with them. This year, I got in not in the lottery, but on a "three consecutive year loser" rule. At any rate, I finally get to run it.

There is an aura around NYC marathon unlike anything else. Oddly, most of my non-running friends acknowledge it as an enormous accomplishment, with greater reverence than any of my ultras, even the 50 milers. I find this fascinating.

Because of this reverence that people have, I won't bother with a race description, because everyone already knows all about it. It's the NYC marathon.

My plan for the last couple of months was to have a great time with it. My buddy Fraioli, also a fat Italian guy, and I were going to take the opportunity to have a slice of pizza in each boro during the race. How cool would that be? However, as of this writing, it seems that he's going to ditch the race for lack of training, meaning I might have no excuse to avoid actually having to run this thing..

Which, frankly, wouldn't be so bad. A 5:45 finish would allow me to experience the crowds that NYC is so famous for - crowds that would have dissipated for the 6:45 finish I probably would have had with Fraioli.

Either way, I really am looking forward to the whole NYC marathon experience. Come back next week for a report.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

People who think I shouldn't run marathons exist, get NYTimes ink

2009-10-28T10:00:00.003-04:00

(This is the 400th post I've written to this blog)

Years ago, I finally internalized the futility of arguing politics with people, especially on the internet, and thus almost never do it even though I retain very very strong opinions. I mostly keep them to myself and reluctantly tolerate others' political rants. Avoiding these arguments has helped me keep friends that I would have otherwise lost. It's a nice perk.

Having learned that lesson, in the past couple of years I have tried, and sometimes failed, to avoid online debates in particular. I'm getting better at it, I swear. But every now and then something comes up and I just can't resist writing about it, or at least spending some otherwise valuable productive time reading people's comments and getting emotionally vested in it.

So when this article in NYTimes came through my feed reader, I knew that if I wasn't careful, the ensuing conversation would descend into a rapidly-downward-spiraling argument that would accomplish nothing. The reason is, this article was talking squarely at me. The Times was printing opinions of people who'd prefer I NOT run marathons.

Stated simply, I have no patience for these people.

I have to leave it at that and resist writing a three-page angry rant here. It would just be a waste of time, as nobody would read it anyway. Instead, I am going to go right into light-hearted mode, and quote some of the funnier opinions of folks who happen to agree with me.

JMF: ...you know you're closer to being Joe Six-Pack that you ever will be to being Paul Tergat. You think Paul is cramped behind a pc someplace ranting about how he's a 'real runner' who can't stand that some people jog the whole way and can't finish in less than 3 hours? But for you 'Real Joggers" - in your little gel pak addled minds, walking it in six hours constitutes being a wooly mouse, and jogging it in 3.5 hours equates to racing through bomb craters and hailstones...

SG: If someone runs a 3:00 marathon, they are still 55 minutes (8 miles back) off the world record. Does that make them a slowpoke fatty?

Shawn D: I'm all for the back-of-the-packers. I say take 10-hours! That way my slow ass times appear all that more impressive :)

Mark: I'm going to have to stop telling people I "run" 100 milers.

legallyillegal: so when some fatf**k does something other than sit at home and have donuts, you're there telling them to go home and have another donut?

B: Shhh!!! If you eliminate the 'casual' or 'walker' marathoner, then you won't get an ego boost comparing yourself to pros & elites that ran past you like you were standing still. How will you feel coming in DFL at 3:10?

There were no shortage of less funny but very insightful comments, either.

Laz: an inherent desire to belittle less talented athletes is a sure sign of an athlete who does not respect his own performance. as a coach, you find that every athlete has their own particular needs. the athlete who belittles others needs to be taught the worth and value of his own performance. the athlete who believes in himself treats other athletes with respect.

Spurgeon Hendrick: Snobby runners can all bite me. Fast runners who complain about slow runners need a reality check. The lady at the end of the article who tells 6+ hour runners, "that’s fine, but you didn’t really run it" ... who does she think SHE is? She's snooty just because her 4:05 time beat somebody by two hours? The elites beat HER by two hours ... Does that mean she "didn't really run it?" And to say, "a six-hour marathoner is simply participating in the event, not racing in it" ... is just plain stupid. Is a four hour marathoner "racing it?" Uh ... no. Is a three hour? Hmmm ... let me think ... the elites will beat him by an hour ... so .. uh .. no. Although I would argue that ALL of the runners are racing against themselves, either against their old PR or against that little voice in their head telling them to quit.Do these elitist numb nuts realize that for some people running the race in 6+ hours requires more effort, more hard work, and more determination than it does for them to run a four hour marathon?

Ed Parrot: But exactly what is the point of saying that someone didn't really run it? I mean, is someone suffering from an insecurity complex or what?

Byron Lane: I've won races that I can't even remember doing, but I can tell you stories from each one of these days on the road with my dad, and so can he. It's my favorite race each year, and probably his, too. Other people can call it a run, a non-race, a fast shuffle--I don't care.

MN: I ran along with a guy who was well into his 80's and had finished every single TC marathon since it began. Started running in his late 50's to keep him off the bottle and from smoking. Hell I'm prayin I can pull that off in 40+ years too and I don't want some douche whose a "real runner" telling me that if I'm not sub 4 hours I shouldn't be there.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Fat people who exercise healthier than skinny people who don't

2009-10-27T10:00:00.001-04:00

(I just realized I made a typo in the publish date, so this is Monday's post on a Tuesday. Sorry.)

via Amby Burfoot's Peak Performance blog

Here's Why Exercise Counts, Even If You're Fat
More and more studies are finding evidence for the "fat by fit" finding, first uncovered by Steve Blair and his many studies at the Cooper Clinic. In case you've forgotten, this line of research has found that overweight individuals who exercise regularly have roughly the same health profile as lower weight people who exercise, and a better profile than thin people who don't exercise. In other words, exercise is the uber-health-enhancer. This review looks at the "how's" of fat-but-fit, and finds that the exercise has significant effects on inflammation, insulin sensitivity, visceral ("belly") fat, and cholesterol even if you don't lose weight. Powerful stuff. Source: Current Opinion In Lipidology.

Here's the study

having said that, i'd still rather be a thin runner than a fat runner.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Ultrarunning Listserv Gold - How to run 50 miles in 12 hours

2009-10-23T10:00:00.002-04:00

A bit of wisdom from Joe Judd of Colorado, who writes,

You are more than ready. I think that 50 miles in 12 hours is very
attainable, especially if it is a flat course.

1) Focus on keeping moving for the whole 12 hours.
2) A run/walk startegy works well for most people. Something like run for 5 minutes, then walk for one minute. I just run at a comfortable pace for as long as I can, then walk when I feel I need to have a break. Getting exhausted is hard to come back from.
3) Don't stop for too long. Keep aid stops to a maximum of around 5 minutes, maybe 10 minutes around dinner time. Remember, if you stop for 5 minutes every hour, you've lost a total of an hour of the race.
4) Most of what you need to overcome is in your head. It's not terribly hard to run a pace of 14:30 per mile. Doing it for 12 hours is another issue.
5) Stay in the moment. It is not a good idea to think of how much longer you have to run. Focus on how you're doing at THAT moment. The hours and miles will take care of themselves. Relentless forward motion!
6) It will get bad. But, then it will get better. It's never a consistent downhill spiral. No matter how bad you feel, you WILL bounce back.

BTW, pretty much all of these things I have learned from the ultra list. Of course, I've had to wade through some bad jokes.

The signal-to-noise ratio on the listserv is pretty darn low, but when something great does come through, it really makes it worth reading.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

knee update and winter race plans

2009-10-21T10:00:00.006-04:00

The good news is that I think my knee will be ok for the NYC marathon, which is a week from Sunday, and then for Stone Cat 50M a week from that. The bad news is I'm not 100% sure.

* I haven't tried running on it yet
* I have not felt pain by walking on it since Monday night, including stairs
* I still feel pain when I touch it
* It feels "fragile" or "glassy", if that makes sense.

I have no idea what would have happened had I attempted to continue running on it at the 50K. My gut tells me the odds are 50/50 that it would have been fine or I would have made it worse. I would have been pulled from that race anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

After Stone Cat, the only thing on my calendar before Umstead is a 50K fatass in the new year. I am not sure what I'll do with the downtime. Tony and I are working on something fun for mid-november to early december but that's not set in stone. If I can get a killer airfare deal, I might head to las vegas for the marathon there to see some friends - that's also early december. I promised Rizzo that I'd go do Rocky Raccoon 100 if he'd man up and do the 50, but you should hear him cry on the phone. "I can't do that!"

"So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?"

Those three things notwithstanding, I pretty much have nothing going on for this winter - and I'm kind of happy about that, because that frees me up to spend lots of quality time with Joe on the ski slopes, and focusing on dropping some weight for umstead..

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Report: Mountain Madness 50K - DNF

2009-10-19T10:00:00.004-04:00

I'll keep this one short:

* Slept in ('til 7:30)
* 10 minute drive from home to the starting line.
* Cold but not rainy
* Got under way at 9am
* ran with my VT50K buddy Frank for a short distance
* Was going slow on the hilly technical terrain but feeling good & comfortable
* Nice view at mile 5
* Frank passed me at mile 7.9 (or so)
* Ran off the course at mile 8. Spent 15 minutes finding my way back.
* Found the course where I left it, shocked at how I ran off (it was clearly marked)

(here's where it gets important)

* Mile 10: tripped on a root. Rock meets kneecap.
* Steve curled in fetal position for 60 seconds, got up and started walking
* Pain went away after 2 minutes. started jogging again.
* Pain came back after 5 minutes. started walking. Pain didn't go away
* Hit a short asphalt section. continued walking. Pain didn't go away.
* Sat on rock and rubbed that groove at the inside edge of the kneecap. Pain got worse.
* Look at watch. I was on pace to miss the cutoff 10 miles down the road, and even if I didn't, going 20 more miles on that knee didn't seem prudent.
* Called my wife to come pick me up. Started walking to the starting line.
* Dropped.

On the drive out, I came across Frank and two other guys walking back towards the starting line. They were told they ought to turn around, they had little chance of making the next cutoff. Because he passed me right before I got lost, I knew he was at least 15 minutes ahead of me - and healthy - yet he was turned around. Reading the race results, I see the winner took 5:20, and there were 69 finishers, 1 DQ and 32 DNFs, not including DNSs. That's really high for a 50K. It's a tough course.

Maybe next year. It's a great race. I liked it.

* Rested and iced it all afternoon on saturday.
* Sunday: pain on stairs, going both up and down. Rested it all afternoon after church. Iced it at night.

BTW - I overheard a lot of people complain about getting lost. I know I did, but it's my own fault for not paying attention. I saw another guy run right off the trail (he was too far away from me for me to catch him or for him to hear me). He missed a VERY clearly marked turn. I don't know everyone's situation, but it seems to me that the RD did as good a job marking the course as can be expected - it's just, in that area, it's easy to take a wrong turn..

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Preview: Mountain Madness 50K

2009-10-16T10:00:00.002-04:00

Let me tell you something - the opportunity for a mid-October 50K through the New Jersey Highlands - is not something to miss. And when that 50K's starting line is less than 10 minutes from home and on the trails I run most often, well, I'd better have a very good reason to miss it.

But I don't have a good reason, so tomorrow morning I'll be toeing the starting line of the Mountain Madness 50K in Ringwood, NJ. And like I said, I'm really excited about this one. I love running on these trails. They're the perfect amount of rocky & technical as single-track can get. Runnable but challenging. And, from the looks of the course, they're taking full advantage of the hilly topography that this area has to offer.

The only challenging factor about this race for a fat slowpoke like me is that, because of the topography, the 8.5 hour time limit might be a bit tough. I'm hoping my rather extensive experience running in this area will make up for that. Weather looks fun, too. It snowed here on Thursday (Oct 15th!) and the mercury hit 32 on my drive home from work. Saturday doesn't look like it'll be quite that cold but the weather isn't going to be bright and sunny either. No matter, as long as it's not muddy like Vermont, I think I'll be happy to be out there.

I don't think live results will be available online, but if you're in the area you might want to come out and watch a little of the race! And, I believe there's still time to register for the 50K or 7.77 mile option if anyone feels up for it! Hope to see you there!

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Extreme Runner of the Week

2009-10-14T10:00:00.002-04:00

An internet message board about running that I frequent has a weekly feature called "extreme runner of the week", a takeoff on their "extreme running" sub-forum - intended for ultra and trail runners. A few weeks ago it was my turn to fill out the EROTW survey, and I'm republishing most of it here for posterity.

Where ya from ?
Flushing, NY. Go Mets!

Where are you now ?
Suffern, NY. They call it that for a reason.

What's Your Sign ?
Gemini

Do you have a nickname ?
Pizza!

Whaddaya do for a livin' ?
Software Developer

How long you been runnin' ?
Off and on since 1997

Average mileage per week ?
25

Trail to Road Ratio ?
3:1 in the summertime.. although a significant number of miles comes from the treadmill, as I like to go to the gym during my lunch hour.

How many toe nails ya still got ?? How many toes ?
right now, 8 toenails on 10 toes

Races per year ?
Try to average one marathon or ultra per month. I think I'll have 14 or 15 in 2009, depending on what happens in November or December. This doesn't count races shorter than a marathon.. I think I've had 3 or 4 races in the 5K-25K range so far this year. Will probably add a few more before the year is out.

First Ultra
Lake Waramaug 50K 2008. Finished in 7:43.

Next Ultra
(Updated) Mountain Madness 50K this weekend - but everything is building up to Umstead next march.

Most Notable Performance
Caumsett 50K this past march. Intending to go out slow and easy and just have a good time, I ended up running a 6:47 PR, and a marathon PR on the way to it.

Just how slow are you, anyway ?
I've never finished 50 miles before dark. It once took me 11 hours to finish a 32-mile race. Some people want more than anything to qualify for boston. I hope one day to break 5 hours.. I'm 33 (:

Ultimate Running Goal
To hang with friends in the middle of the pack during an ultra. Back-of-the pack is too spread out for hanging..

Got a dream event ??
Hardrock / UTMB

What is the most EXTREME event or training run you've ever done ?
I entered Rocky Raccoon in 2009 and didn't finish.
The most extreme race I've finished, therefore, would be Grand Teton 50 - 10'000 feet of climbing, finished it after midnight.

Do You XT ?
No.

Do you have a running idol or inspiration ?
I'm a fan of Ryan Hall and Anton Krupicka, but would hardly call them idols or inspiring.

I do find disabled runners, fat runners, old runners, and generally slow runners inspiring - and I wouldn't except the fact that I hear so often people who could be awesome runners making excuses - telling me that they can't run because their knees hurt, or because of some injury in their past, or because they're too old, or something else. No disrespect intended, but while they say that, I think of the amputees who finish badwater.

Running strengths and weaknesses ?
Strengths: Um, I smile a lot during races?
Weaknesses: Everything. I'm built to be a lineman. If I lose enough weight I'd be built to be a linebacker. I'm slow, my form must be pathetic, and I can hardly talk when I'm running at even an easy pace.

FAVORITE STUFF

A favorite frequent running route
The reason for the frequency of running routes I go to most often is more because of their proximity rather than enjoyment. Having said that, it's a real treat to head up to Mohonk and run there, or to run with Tony at Rockies (where allowed, anyway), or to do some sort of cross-country route through harriman State Park or Ramapo Reservation. But the logistics make that kind of run tough..

A favorite running event & why
Tetons. Great atmosphere, great people, just a really enjoyable event.

An out-of-town run that you'd like to do again ? why ?
Tetons

Somewhere you've never run but would like to ...
Washington and Oregon.

What does your favorite running shirt say ?? Can we see a picture of You in it ??
Sorry, all my running shirts are either race shirts or solid colors. My favorite t-shirt says "No, I won't fix your computer." It's cotton, I wouldn't run it it.

What's yer favorite running food
Before - Bagel with lox and cream cheese
During - Depends on my mood. Fresh fruit can be awesome. Other times, it's horrible and I want turkey.
After - Greasy Almost-Raw cheddar-burger with lots of bacon & extra cheese!! I want to run a race near Chandler, AZ (javelina?) just so I can have an excuse to eat one of these 8000-calorie babies:

Do you have a favorite saying, quotation or mantra ?
"Enjoy the weather, it's the only weather you've got." (Joe Bastardi)

If you run with music, what are some of you fave running songs ?
I rarely run with music. If I do, it's short high-intensity work and I find music helps - lately this has been a few moby songs. I have an hour-long playlist that I work my way through.
Having said that, I listen to a lot of podcasts Running is my TV time, because I don't watch too much of it. Podcasts are TV for me.. on topics ranging from technology to reformed theology. My favorites are This American Life, Stack Overflow, Mark Driscoll, James White, The Java Posse, Endurance Planaet, TWiT, DrunkAndRetired, Hardcore History, and Common Sense with Dan Carlin.

BEER ! !

Which’s yer favorite ?
Changes frequently. This month I'm partial to Blue Moon. I guess I'm always happy with a nice belgian ale though..

What is the most amout you’ve had
Pre ? Never. I've gotta work on that.
During ?? One can, twice - once at the philadelphia marathon, and once at chicago.

After ? 3 or 4, I guess. I've never gotten drunk after a race..

. . . running that is--

SOME MORE THINGS WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOU

What is the greatest challenge you face in your running now and/or the biggest obstacle you have overcome in the past ?
I used to weigh 400 lbs. That has a rather detrimental effect on your running. Try it some time to see what I mean.
This morning I weighed 286lbs. I don't have a "magic number" where I'll feel like I'm at a weight I'll be happy with, but it's at least another 50lbs away, probably 75.

Have any Trail & Ultra Running fears ?
Not really. Nighttime running used to freak me out, but once I did it a couple of times I was ok with it.

How do you handle the dreaded “DNF” ?
I'm at a point where if I DNF, there's a really good reason for it. The one time I did DNF and later realize I could have finished had I kept moving, I went back the next year and finished the sucker. That was Grand Teton on labor day.

Trail & Ultra training takes up a lot of time. How do you manage to ...
It doesn't take a ton of time in my case. I can run at lunch, or in the morning before the wife and kid are up. Weekend LSDs are a different matter, particularly because I'm so slow (the 20-miler you can do in 3-4 hours takes me 5).

Do you think we need a reason "WHY" to run ? Do you have one ... or more ???
No. I started running to lose weight, and to run a marathon (took me 9 years before I actually ran one, but that's a different story.) Once I got into trail running, I wanted to lose weight so I can run more trails. For me, trail running is the perfect wilderness experience. Hiking is just too .. slow. for me. Plus, the people who run ultras are awesome.

Do you have any rituals or carry any lucky charms or amulets for your races ?
Nope

UltraRunning pets or pet peeves ?
I'm pretty free-going, you run your race your way, i run mine my way. I've never seen anyone behave in a way that bothered me - except for bothered people. In other words, the only thing that can bother me is seeing a person get worked up over some other runner's way of doing things.

Enjoy or Hate The Taper ? How do you survive it ?
My whole life is a taper. I never taper. I haven't decided which is true.

Besides running and working out, what other stuff do you like to do ?
I'm a software developer, so I like to think I enjoy that, and sometimes I do. I used to be an avid skier, and would say I still am except that this last season I didn't ski at all.. which bothers me. I love skiing. Running, however, is cheaper. (:

FILL IN THE BLANK

I started running because __I was fat, wanted to lose weight, and wanted to run a marathon__ .

I don't like to run when __I'm away from my family__ .

I am so proud of __a lot of things__ .

My wife/husband/SO thinks I am __neat__ for running trails 'n ultras.

I'd like to run with __anyone__ , because __I love the company__ .

My best line of BS said during a race to encourage a fellow UR consumed in self-pity and thinking of dropping was “__you guys look great__”. (sorry for the boring answer. I'll start working on a better one.)

--Back in the 80's I'd rather be __learning BASIC on my apple ][C__ than sweatin' it out on on some dumb trail run. Of course, now i know better !!

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com

Race Report: VT 50K part 2

2009-10-12T10:00:00.004-04:00

If you haven't already, please read part 1 here first, for this post is a continuation of that.

After a 1 mile period of running with the 50-mile mountain bikers and super-fast 50K runners, the 50K course once again splits off briefly before rejoining the 50-mile course. It was at this point I started to feel a bit fatigued on the uphills. It turns out that the aggressive powerwalking I did early on in the race was a bit too much for my modest level of fitness, and I started bonking on these hills. I ended up letting Frank get ahead of me on a very beautiful section of singletrack which meandered and switchbacked through the mist in the relatively open forest. I remember thinking that this is the reason to come up and run in New England, because, even on a mediocre day weather-wise, Vermont offers up its own unique beauty and it's really special to be a part of it. I stopped to shoot a short panorama video in this section, and you can find it in the only non-shaky part of the youtube video that goes along with part one of this report.

As nice as that interlude was, however, I was still in the midst of a pretty dramatic bonk, and I was glad at this point to take a hundred brief rests to step aside from the trail and let the numerous mountain bikers pass. To make matters worse, I forgot to check the distance from the last aid station to the next and it seemed it would never come. Finally, the drama of my bonk peaked at a steep uphill at mile 16 or so where I'd have to take numerous breaks to rest, until I crested it and saw that glorious aid station in an open field. I must have spent ten minutes there, sitting and eating a ton of trail mix and just trying to take in as much energy as I could.

There were four miles to the next aid station, and once I did finally get up, I walked a downhill and soon started feeling ok again. Problem was, I ate too much before and my stomach was giving me problems! This was a frustrating part of the race for me, but it actually rather typical in my experience - I'm just a slow learner, I guess.

Once we got to the next aid station, the second-to-last, I tried to "relieve myself" to calm my stomach but was unable to, so ate a little bit (they had grilled cheeses there and it was wonderful!) and went on my way. Before going, however, I overheard someone say something about "lots of gnarly single-track mud to the next aid," and let me tell you - he wasn't kidding. This was where my experience of Vermont went from just another typical long run for me to something "stupid." And, as I said in the previous post, that's the only way I can describe it.

The mud was overwhelming. At Damn Wakely Dam this year, the mud was pretty bad- at points i sunk nearly to my knee. But there, traction was never really a problem. The people who maintain those trails do an incredible job at putting boards and logs over the sections where forward progress would be difficult due to traction. Those boards and logs were slippery to be sure, but at least you could traverse them without too much trouble. In Vermont, the trails, many private and without boards, were literally impossible to run, and walking was difficult. The trails were destroyed and, while I'm by no means an expert on these things, it seemed to me like the damage was such that they were permanently widened due to this event alone. Hundreds of mountain bikers, who's bikes were so gunked up with mud that many were inoperable, were hiking along side us ultrarunners, pushing their bikes. All of that traffic made it a mess that was very frustrating to hike on, and as I said, running was almost impossible.

I finally got to the last aid station with three miles to go and took a seat. The volunteers, who were obviously dealing with frustrations of their own, didn't see me there as I sat for 5 minutes just drinking and eating. I finally asked someone where the water was because I had an empty reservoir in my pack and they pointed me at the correct jug. I hobbled over there, refilled it, and went on my way.

I should have quit.

The last 3 miles of the course was much worse than the previous 6. It's hard to describe. Take the description of that paragraph and multiply it by ten to get an idea of what the 3 miles were like. I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that it was bad enough that I pretty much lost it out there, and it unfortunately colored my experience of the entire race, even though the first 22 miles were relatively pleasant.

When I finally got on the solid footing of the grass ski slopes, I walked all the way back in even though the trail was now runnable, and my only reason for this is I was literally angry at the trail, as if the trail was something worth being angry at. But that's where I honestly was. I finished a rather unpleasant experience and the finish itself didn't make it any better.

Which brings me to the lesson I learned that day:

if a race sucks, DNFing can be a more pleasant than finishing.

I finished, and even now wish I hadn't. It's kind of an ironic statement because I can't tell you how many times I've read about people either regretting their DNFs, or justifying them by saying they don't regret them. I've been there myself, and I know exactly what writing that kind of report is like. However, it turns out that finishing when it wasn't so much a physical challenge, but rather just something to finish, isn't very rewarding when the experience itself isn't pleasant.

After the race, I grabbed something to eat and dried off by the fireplace at Ascutney, hanging with a group of 50K finishers and 50M'ers who missed cutoffs. Those of us who finished were able to ease the disappointment of those who didn't with our stories of the last nine miles. The bottom line for pretty much all of us was, "it just wasn't worth it."

Perhaps on a better year Vermont is an amazing race that isn't to be missed. Some people certainly seem to love it tremendously. But when I come back from nearly every race with a positive story to tell, I'm afraid to say I'm 0 for 2 with Vermont and not all that interested in going back a third time. The first time, I saw a "no-love-for-the-back-of-the-pack" attitude that reminded me so much of several NYRRC races that I won't go back to, and in the second time, I saw that when a race mixes runners with something else, in this case MTBers, it can work out in ideal situations but if anything goes wrong the problem gets intensified by the mixture. Mixing runners with others on the same course just doesn't seem to be a good idea to me. Perhaps I'll expand on this thought in a future post.

Anyway, my official finish time is 8:38, but my actual finish time is almost 10 hours - over 3 hours off my 50K PR. The reason for the discrepancy is they don't have me as having started with the 50-mile runners. I made sure they knew before the race and also emailed the RD directly afterwords to make sure he was aware of the mistake, but it hasn't been changed. Whatever.

Most of my friends finished the 50-miler between 11 and 12 hours. It was a long day for everyone. After the race, Tony and I got cleaned up and drove back home. Since there wasn't much food left for them at the finish line, we stopped after an hour of driving in brattoboro and had huge dinners before continuing through Mass and Connecticut before arriving in white plains sometime after midnight, and finally suffern about 1am.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time and can be seen at http://www.tursi.com