Ultra Kraut Running

This isn't really a gear review, per se. Instead, it is more of a "DIY" article. With much of the United States under snow and ice advisories, it may be a good time to share some thoughts and tips on how to allow yourself to still run outside even when the ground is covered in snow and/or ice. Sure, you've got the layers worked out, you have your gloves and beanie to protect your hands and head, your buff to protect your neck and face, a long sleeve shirt and jacket to protect your core and your tights that you only pull out only when the temps dip into the single digits, but what about your footing? How do you make sure you stay upright and not slip and break a hip? Hopefully, this short "How To" will help you with that as well.

Certainly, you could just go online or find your local retailer to purchase a set of those fancy traction devices. There are Kathoola Microspikes and Nanospikes, Yaktrax Pro and Run, Stabilicers, and so on. They are all great and provide a solid solution for different surfaces and conditions. The Kathoola devices work great on trails while the Yaktrax devices are great for roads. However, if you live in the regions that barely see any snow and ice, it is often hard to justify such a purchase. After all, you may never need them or only once or twice a year. However, there is a much cheaper and just as effective solution out there for all of us. First, go to your shoe closet and find an old pair of runners, trail shoes or road shoes will do. Second, you will need a traction device. This is where your local hardware store comes in. They all carry what are called sheet metal screws. They are available for very little money, just make sure they aren't very long. You must also make sure that your outer and midsoles are deep enough to take the full length of the screws once you screw them into the bottom of your old shoes. However, before you proceed, be sure to lay out and arrange the screw pattern for your traction shoes. Avoid placing them in the center of your shoes as that may prove uncomfortable when you step or jump on hard surfaces. Be sure to have traction near your "landing spots", both on your heels for walking and on your forefoot for running. The exact pattern is entirely up to you and nothing keeps you from rearranging the screws once you've been out there to test them.

Sheet Metal Screws

Hopefully, this little article has provided some useful info. If nothing else, it's another tool to get you outside this winter. Feel free to comment with similar ideas or other comments.

If you're a Huntsville local, chances are you first learned about the sport of ultrarunning in connection with the Mountain Mist 50K. As one of the oldest ultramarathons in the Southeastern United States and now in its 25th year, the Mountain Mist is still considered one of the toughest by many. It may not have the most vert, but every year trail runners are humbled when they attempt to finish this race.

Every year, a slew of new Mountain Misters take off at the start gun at paces that resemble that of a 5K road race and this year as no different. That usually comes back to bite them, maybe not after 17 miles, the unofficial halfway point of the race, when they ran past or jump over the red gate at the Fearn Street crossing, but certainly at mile 23ish, when they start their climb up Waterline Trail. And if they still aren't humbled, they certainly will be by the time they make their way up Crybaby Hill or the final climb to the top of Rest Shelter. Hey, I'm not judging, it took me multiple times to figure out that even though the first half is actually very runnable, it still has nearly 2000ft of vert over 17 miles, which makes the second "half" or remaining 14 miles and 2000ft of vert over 2 major climbs even more challenging, if you failed to hold back a little on the front end.

Luckily, It only took me 5 finishes to learn to latch on to "the" veteran of this race, let's call him DeWayne, who is like the metronome of the Mountain Mist. If you want to see what consistent pacing looks like, just watch DeWayne. He's not only one of the fastest runners ever to run the Mountain Mist (9 wins speak for themselves), he also one of the smartest. Oh yeah, he also makes for great conversation on the trails.

While many of us get humbled by this race, we come back over and over and over again and it's not just for the coveted 10 time finisher jacket, it much deeper than that. It's a family reunion, but not just for local runners, it's a reunion of runners from around the Southeast. I spend more time catching up with runners before and after the race than I actually do running the race. That is not an exaggeration. It is the reason this is my favorite race year after year. It is also the most important race for me. Whether I have trained for it nor not, I never ever not put it all out there. There is nothing more fun than to race your friends whom you usually train with the rest of the year.

This year marked my ninth start and finish and while it was fun, it is never easy. In December, I had some grand ambitions of trying to run a personal best. This goal did not change until the weekend before the race, when I bruised a rib during a trail run and woke up with a head cold the following day. Not a great omen for a PR attempt. Feeling sluggish all week, I finally admitted to myself that a PR was out of the question. I entered race weekend with a slightly adjusted goal still ready to run as hard as possible. The plan was to save some on the front half to see how I would have some left in the tank in the latter part of the race to push the pace. I am happy to report that plan worked out for the most part, anyway.

After some start line banter and the loud bang of the start signal, we were off. Having run this race 8 times, you kind of fall in with the same group of runners year after year. This year was no different. Even though DeWayne was running with a torn meniscus, he still set the perfect pace. The first few miles went by fairly quickly and were rather uneventful. I tried to make sure not to raise my heart rate too much too early. That also meant hiking rather than running some of the stepper sections of the hills.

I cruised into the 17 mile aid station at red gate feeling pretty good and still on target to hit my A goal for the day. The tried and true formula requires you to double your red gate split to come up with your approximate finishing time. If you end up much slower than that, then you most definitely started the race too fast.

I was still running by feel. In fact, I checked my time for the first time at red gate AS. I continued to drink a bottle of fluids in between aid stations and take one gel every 45 minutes. I chased that with a couple of SCaps every hour, which kept me fueled evenly and cramp free all day. My pace would fluctuate only very lightly. I would zone out and slow my pace, mostly on the High Trail and Bluffline Trail sections. Eventually, I would snap out of it and pick it back up again. By the time I reached the top of Waterline trail, I started the smell the barn. Another 10K and this thing would be done. I had some renewed energy coming through the Trough Springs AS, but that slowly started to fizzle as I made my way down Natural Well Trail. By the time I reached "slush mile" or the bottom of McKay Hollow Trail, I was ready to be done. One more slow climb up Rest Shelter and all that was left was a 1.7 mile flat stretch to the finish.

I declined the beer and chili at the final AS and tried my best to sustain a decent pace. When I finally crossed the finish line, I had reached my A goal and was another step closer to my 10 time finisher jacket. I spent the next 3 hours reminiscing about the day with my trail family. I am already looking forward to 2020 and my 10th finish.

I really entered this race with the completely wrong attitude, but at least I knew that before I even started the race. I was clearly undertrained having taken it easy after completing the Chattanooga 100 Miler just four weeks earlier. Instead of training, I had been indulging in vegan junk food and sweets over the holidays more than I'd care to admit. Nevertheless, I was tempted to toe the line just to run this new course that had been created to allow the Recover From The Holidays 50K race to move for just this year while its original established location, the Huntsville Cross Country Park, was undergoing a complete overhaul and redesign by the city.

I didn't want to miss out, but I had also just started to map out my new training schedule for the new year and it didn't really call for a 50K that Monday, so I decided to just run by feel and if I ever felt like calling it a day, I would not feel guilty. That's not usually my attitude, but when race is just 5 minutes from your house, it's easy to bail. The decision to allow yourself to cut a race short is an almost guaranteed way for failure and you need to be okay with that beforehand.

Toeing the start line anyway allowed me to catch up and run with lots of friends with very little race pressure. The course layout is such that runners will get back to the start finish area every 3 miles, so it was easy to place your own little aid station there as you would see it 10 times during the full duration of the race. The race started with the flat half (or about a mile) of the 3 mile loop before they starting counting 10 laps to make sure we all got the full 31 miles. 

Unlike the original course, this course was deceivingly challenging as the second half of the course  (second half of each loop) contained about .5 miles of uphill running, some sections steeper than others. With every lap around the course, I found myself walking more and more of that climb and by the 7th loop, I walked nearly all of it. While some of that was related to the fact that I had made up my mind that this would be my final lap, the terrain certainly made it easy for me to call it a day. On top of it, temperatures were already in the 60s at the race start, which was highly unusual for this time of year even in the southeast. It was clear that I wasn't the only one noticing that as an additional challenge.

When it was all said and done for me, I had completed 22 miles at a decent pace. I was content with the way things had played out and happy to hang out and cheer on other runners as they continued their races to finish this rather challenging 50K course.

Next up, Mountain Mist 50K. See you on the trails!

I had yet another year of amazing adventures in 2018 and the Chattanooga 100 Miler was supposed to be the icing on the cake. It was at the tail end of a heavy ultra and mountain running season and I had not race plans other than to cross the finish line feeling well. My buddy Paul had broken his neck (yep, you read that right) earlier in the year during a trail race and the Chattanooga 100 Miler was both his comeback race (#BrokenNeckTo100Miler) and his last chance to secure the final points he needed to secure himself a starting spot at the 2019 UTMB. Our entire Huntsville crew (Paul, Jerry, Jeff, honorary Huntsvillian Jan and myself) had signed up to be there with him for this awesome challenge. 

Jerry's wife Wonda had organized a huge hunting cabin (really, it was more of a mansion) with enough bedrooms for all of us and our better halves just 30 minutes from the race start in Cloudland Canyon State Park, Georgia. Since the race started on Friday morning at 8AM, we had to be in Chattanooga on Thursday evening for our packet pickup at Rock/Creek. I was the first to arrive with a beer in hand by the time the rest of the gang showed up.

The Chattanooga 100 Miler is an out & back race course that takes runners from Cloudland Canyon State Park all the way to Covenant College atop Lookout Mountain before sending them back to the state park. Along the way, runners climb nearly 12,000ft while traversing in and out of Cloudland Canyon along beautiful waterfalls. There's even a "fun" bouldering and rope assist section on the return leg of the course. Most of the course runs on beautiful single track with some technical trails early and late in the race. However, most of the course is fairly easy trail with only a very short road section, but because it rained for more than 24 hours during the race, the entire course was rather challenging. That combined with the continuously dropping temps added to make not only for an epic adventure, but for an extremely challenging 10 miles as well.

An 8AM race start allowed all of us to get plenty of sleep the night before the race. Luckily, my running crew was kind enough to join me for dinner at a fantastic vegan restaurant in Chattanooga, Sluggo's. Check it out, if you're ever in town and you're either vegan or just feeling adventurous. Our early dinner right after packet pickup meant we had plenty of time to lay out our racing gear before calling it an early night.

By 5:30AM the next morning, everyone had slowly gotten up to get ready for the big day. Everyone had brought along their preferred pre-race breakfast items. I had my usual cup of coffee. The plan was to leave the house by 6:30AM to make the 30 minute drive to the race start. With lots of rain in the forecast for the day, I kept going back and forth between a windbreaker and a rain jacket, but ultimately settled for the windbreaker, since the temperatures were supposed to be mild.

We arrived at the race start just after 7AM with plenty of time to check in and to catch up with friends old and new. In fact, I bumped into one of my early running adventure buddies, Dan "The Man" Burstein. Dan and I had run a few 100 milers together in my early ultra running days, including an awesome Rim2Rim2Rim run at the Grand Canyon. It was awesome to catch up with this guy.

There were many other familiar faces at this race and there is something very comforting about seeing them toe the starting line alongside you as you embark on a 100 mile trail race. 100 milers to me are still the great unknown. Unforeseen any injury, you can pretty much map out how a race will unfold for you from the 50K all the way to the 100K distance, but when it comes to 100 miles, it is impossible to foresee the outcome. So many things come into play, both internal and external. There is nutrition, hydration, electrolytes, salt, potassium, carbs, sodium, etc. There is the weather, unpredictable as ever, hot, cold, wet, dry, etc. There are the trail conditions, wet, dry, muddy, single track, jeep road, asphalt, etc. There is climbing and descending, right and wrong gear choices, the list is nearly endless for things to go right and oh so very wrong.

The race started after the usual pre-race pep talk by Run Bum Sean Blanton. I had lined up somewhere in the second or third row, fully intent on running very conservatively from the start. Since this was a bonus race of sorts for me, I hadn't really had the kind of training cycle I usualy aim for heading into a 100 mile race. After UTMB in September, I had taken it rather easy, only running occasionally and participating in a couple of ultras and a few short distance races from 10K to half marathon. When I had planned to ramp up my training, I had gotten sick with a flu like virus, keeping me from running for nearly 3 weeks. O e could say, I had an extended taper leading into this race, which meant I had no idea what the day would or could bring for me. However, as it always the case as I get closer and closer to a race with lowered expectations, I still somehow thing I might be able to get a good performance out of myself. In this case, I actually thought (quite delusional I might add) I could try for a PR, if I started conservatively enough. That would mean to run a time faster than 21 hours 30 minutes. 

I settled in with Drew Cox, a runner I'd met at the Cannonball Ultra in Chattanooga, TN just a month earlier. We chatted for a bit, making the first 6 or so miles go by very quickly. The first 13 miles of the course consisted of a loop inside the state park that had us running along the canyon rim as well and do an out and back into and out of the canyon past a couple of spectacular waterfalls and along a rushing creek.

Speaking of sightings along the trail, I did have a couple of "wild" animal encounters. The first encounter was with a spotted pig that was just wandering around on the trail inside the canyon, checking out runners as they passed by, looking for food. It would actually let you close enough to pet it. I'm not sure, but if I had to take a guess, this pig probably belonged to a farm somewhere and got away. However, from what I could tell, we were nowhere near a farm. Definitely the most unusal animal spotted during a trail race for me.

The second "wild" animal spotting would be just a few miles later along the course, where we were running adjacent to a fenced in private property for just 100 yards or so. This time, it was a slightly less friendly pitbull barking at us from behind a fenced property. I had barely uttered the words "thank god this little fella is behind a fence, when I suddenly appeared in front of us as we came around a bent in the trail, without any fence between us. He started charging at Andrew Bustos for just a second, but when Andrew stepped towards him, he backed off again. For some reason, we all ran up that next hill just a bit faster. I think an ever so small adrenaline rush had something to do with that. 

Andrew and I had started running together as we were making our way into the canyon. We ended up running together for the first 50K of the race. Andrew was running his first 100 miler and he had a plan. After 50K, he dropped me like a bad habit and I would not see him again until the finish line. He finished about 20 minutes ahead of me. Congrats on an awesome first 100 miler, Andrew! Way to push through some rough conditions.

Speaking of conditions, the course was mostly undulating terrain with a few bigger climbs along the course. Times would have been much faster and the finishing rate would have been much higher, had it not been for weather and trail conditions that continued to deteriorate all day and all night. The rain became more steady and the temperatures continued to drop. I had grabbed my headlamp from my drop bag around at mile 45 at the Lula Lake AS, but wouldn't need it until just before the turnaround at mile 51 at Covenant AS. I had also changed from a windbreaker to a tape sealed rain jacket, which was definitely a key decision for my race.

Temperatures would vary greatly as would the winds and the driving rain. I regulated my body temperature by zipping my jacket up or don and by pulling the hood on or off. Along with the weather, the trails deteriorated as well. What had started as packed down single track trails had turned into ankle deep creeks or mudslides. It made finding your running rhythm very difficult, well, nearly impossible. Later into the race, lots of short climbs could not be runa s the terrain was way too slick and slippery to do so. Staying out of standing water on the trails was impossible as water was covering all of the trails by this point.

The bottom of Lookout Mountain also featured a short bouldering section with a rope-assisted ascent. I think that would have been way more fun had it not been dark, cold and wet as hell. I lost some serious time on this section, but that really didn't matter to me. I had realized at the halfway point that a PR was highly unlikely and that was before conditions got really had.

I was able to keep things together both mentally and physically. My wife was able to join me as my crew around mile 65 and it was just great to see her along the course for little mental boosts every few hours. I had changed my goal to sub 24 hours, but finishing was the ultimate goal. After 90+ miles, runners would arrive back at the start/finish area before completing another 8 mile loop inside the park. I was feeling pretty good rolling into this final AS. I got another boost from seeing my wife, refilled my bottles and headed out. I was ready to be done. What I did not know is that conditions had worsened big time along the trail I would have to run on for the next 4 miles. The rim trail was now completely under water, hiding both slick rock and roots beneath the surface. Running in this terrain had become impossible. Unfortunately, the driving rain and wind had increased to a full blown storm and the temps were rather cold along the canyon rim as well. As I slowed to a walk, my body temp dropped quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I started to think of quitting, but I didn't even know where to go to seek refuge. All I could do was continue on and hope to get off this section as quickly as possible. This was the longest hour or so of my life.

When I finally left the rim trail and entered the park road, I started to run what felt like 7 minute pace. I needed to get warm somehow. I could see the hand in front of my face, the rain was driving so hard. I kept running and cursing, cursing Sean and warning him not to send me on another trail loop before reaching the finish. Thankfully, the road section continued for a total of 3-4 miles all the way to the finish. I was elated to see the final arrow to the finish line and even happier when I saw the actual finish line, crossing it in 23 hours and 4 minutes for 6th male overall.  I collected my high fives and hug from Sean followed by a hug from my wife before immediately heading for shelter. This was one hard earned buckle and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Obligatory pre-race selfie with the entire crew (me, Jerry, Jeff, Paul and Jan, from left to right).

Congrats to all who toed the starting line and an even bigger congrats to all finishers. A huge thanks to Sean and his entire crew of volunteers for another well executed race. I may have cursed you at times, but I sure am glad I got run this race:-)

In the canyon just 6-7 miles into the race.

This was to be an easy weekend, not a dizzy weekend, but car trouble had prevented me from running the Sky to Summit 50K the week prior, so I was still in urgent need of a long run. My race calendar showed one final race on the first weekend in December, the Chattanooga 100 Miler, but I hadn't been able to train much over the last 2 months.

First, I took some time off from long distance training, instead racing some shorter distance races up to the half marathon distance on both roads and trails. The goal was to ramp up distance after a few weeks in prep of the 100 mile race, but that plan was thwarted with something that started as a minor cold, but turned into a 3 week struggle to regain my energy. During this time, I barely logged any runs.

Fast forward to this weekend. This was now my last chance to see if I could even cover 31 miles running or if it would be a struggle from start to finish. If the latter as true, then I was likely going to pull the plug on the 100 miler in December, even if it wasn't going to be a goal race. Thankfully, I managed to get into the race via the waitlist.

Race morning promised to be a cold one. The race course had been redesigned last year and to make things even more interesting,  it had been reversed for this year's edition. The race is run on Monte Sano mountain and consists of a total of three identical loops of single track trail with about 900-1000 feet of vertical gain per loop.

The entry list looked promising and with the given weather conditions, it was easy to predict fast finishing times. While I knew that I was neither in the position nor in the condition to compete for a podium when looking at the field of my fellow competitors, I still managed to forget that fact as soon as the race started.

After starting out slightly ahead of my goal pace (read: too fast), I settled into a more reasonable pace towards the end of the first loop. I was running somewhere around 8th or 9th place. I would make up a couple of spots on the second loop before losing these two spots again to different runners on the final loop, finishing in 8th place overall out of about 100 runners.

The Dizzy Fifties course is very runnable. In fact, the entire loop is runnable, if one manages a sustainable pace. The first 6 miles in this year's direction are rather fast, rolling through the state park with little vertical gain or loss until runners hit the only aid station aside from the start/finish line aid station. Once we pass this aid station, we drop down the Sinks Trail for a fast one mile descent. After that runners immediately tackle the first and steepest of two climbs before continuing running on rolling single track around the memorable Stone Cuts before returning to the start finish area.

I managed to sustain a solid pace for the first lap and while I dropped pace on the second loop, I was still on track to run my third fastest 50K ever. That was, until fatigue started to catch up with me in the form of severe muscle cramps in both my quads and my calves. Add to that a painful toe stub followed by a hard fall and you know how the third loop turned out. My pace slowed significantly and in the end, I was lucky to hang on to my 8th place finish in 4 hours and 43 minutes.

The Dizzy Fifties is a well organized event and a fun race for first timers and veteran ultra runners alike, thanks to the efforts of RD Ryan Chaffin and his crew of volunteers. The course was extremely well marked, never leaving any doubt where to go. The most challenging thing were the fallen leaves hiding rocks and roots. However, this same fall foliage is also what makes this race course and the state park so beautiful this time of year. Do yourself a favor and sign up next year and be sure not to wait until the last minute. You wouldn't want to miss out.