same cast, different stage

Same cast, different stage
Where was I last… somewhere in Austria if I’m not mistaken. Running up a mountain? Drinking wine? Or was it hefewiesen?
Anyway. My path took carried me to Slovenia as it did last year. Grintovec. 6000ft of climbing in less than six miles. The little gremlin (more like golum than a gremlin now that I think about it) was still behind the bar at the mountain hut/starting line and offered me a beer before I even took my helmet off. What sort of impression did I leave on these people last year?
This was to be my first Grand Prix race of the year (second of the series) and I expected nothing less that some of the best to be here. Jonathon Wyatt, Robert Krupicka, Marcus Kroll, a hand full of fast Slovenians…. The race went out somewhat pedestrian-like and for the first time in my mountain running “career” I had a lead on Wyatt… that is if you can call one meter a “lead”. I enjoyed all three minutes of it before I resumed looking at his backside from an ever growing distance. The Czeck – Krupicka followed close behind me for a quarter of the race before making his move. By halfway I could see up ahead that he had overtaken Wyatt (which he had also done the week before at Grossglockner in Austria before Wyatt regained his position). For the remainder of the race I ran, wondering who would take the win meanwhile looking back frequently thinking that a Slovenian was closing in on me. He probably was, but when the grade is nearing a constant 30+% a 200m gap is nearly infinite. I arrived at the finish line three minutes slower than what I had run the last year to win the race. Krupick took the win – two minutes ahead of Wyatt. There was a tuba and an accordion playing at the finish. There is only one way to get a tuba and an accordion to the finish of this race and that is to hike it up. If that isn’t amazing enough, the race director, Dusan, was also up there. He walks with arm-brace canes as his knee has been quite bad for nearly five years. He watches the top males and females finish then begins the 6000ft descent.
The Slovenians again drank me under the table well into the evening and I left late the next morning for a visit to a friend in Italy. The Slovenians, it should be noted, have taken the death of Michael Jackson very seriously. In 24 hours I heard billie jean x 7, thriller x 5, beat it x 5 and some other stuff that I haven’t heard for quite some time.
A three day visit to a friend in Treviso, Italy which was a breath of fresh air as I had been surrounded by runners for nearly three weeks. The heat sent me on my way just as fast and I soon found myself camping in the rain on the Austrian side of Brenner pass several hours later. Note: it is quite impossible to feel bad about one’s camping situation whilst reading “the worst journey in the world” by Ashley cherry-girard – an account of scott’s 1912,13 south pole expedition. A night outside in mid-summer Austrian rain just doesn’t seem to compare to -70f with nothing to protect you but canvas tents and reindeer fur for warmth.
Anyway. Next stage. Same actors. Much the same scene. Mayerhofen, Austria for my second Grand Prix race appropriately called Harakiri… the ritualistic Japanese suicide. Though the only thing Japanese about the race was the 13th place finisher. The race went out fast and by the 3rd (of 9) kilometer I found myself in a nervous 11th place. By the next kilometer I was in 5th and by half way I began a long fought battle with an Austrian runner whom I’ve never raced for 3rd. There must have been 25 switchbacks from halfway on. I’d put 5 meters on the Austrian and he’d gain them back. This went on for quite some time until finally on the last climb a blood curdling yell came from behind me. I looked back to see if maybe the Austrian had taken the name of the race a bit too seriously, but here was still there, belly in tact, grinding away but no longer in contention. Wyatt took the win. Krupicka 2nd.
Some trains and some riding later has brought me to the small town of Zinal where finishes the legendary Sierre-Zinal. In the European mountain running community, this race needs no introduction. It is the best race out here and has been for over 30 years. 32kilometers. Starting at an elevation of 585meters, climbing to 2425meters over 24k before descending to Zinal at 1680meters (1500feet to 7500feet over 14miles then descending 2500feet over the next four miles my American friends). There are so many reasons to love this race. 1. Beautiful course. 2. Wonderful hospitality. 3. Great cultural experience. 4. Historical. And 5. Competition. The competition deserves some explanation. The world mountain running championships does not get all of the best mountain runners, nor does the Grand Prix. Politics, money (lack there-of to be specific), timing and other things keep some of the best runners from running in those races. For all the reasons that I mentioned, Sierre-Zinal fills in the gaps. If the names Killian, Mejia, Krupicka, Du Pont, Vigil, Burns or Sneider don’t mean anything to you, look them up. They are, hands down, the best in the sport. A top five finish will give me the greatest amount of joy. Sunday.
Lastly, I have been informed that the kind folks of the American Mountain Running Team have selected me for the at-large (6th and final) spot on the 2009 team. I will be competing in Italy with a most respectable team on September 9th at the World Mountain Running Championships (this is the first year that the race is being recognized as a “championship” race rather than a “trophy” meaning that it is IAAF sanctioned and how shall we say… legit). Thank you.

there is a great blog role right now at http://mountainrun.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/us-mountain-running-team-final-selection-race/

Trail Runner

Please, please, please. Go up a copy of the Trail Runner that is on the shelves right now. You'll find it in between Time and Newsweek.... or at your outdoor retail store.

Chris and I continued our bike trip from telfes, austria onto bolzano, italz where we drank some fine wine late into the evening with, none other than, the greatest stair racer of all time – paul crake of australia. The companz was also graced with the presence of world mountain running champion, marco de gasperi and the illustrius martin cox. martin cooked. The pasta was not al dente.we peddled away late in the morning, straight into the italian dolomites. Two more days and several passes later we arrived at the sight of my first european mountain race from two years ago – heiligenblut, austria. We welcomed the chance to watch euro sport, catch up with the tour and take full advantage of the glocknerhof´s generous buffet.

The start list included world mountain running champion and two time olympian, jonothan wyatt of new zealand, three very fast kenyans and several top-ten world mountain runners – marco gaiardo (italy), robert krupicka (czeck republic), martin cox (great britan), marcos kroll (austria), david sneider (switzerland) and several others.

As three feet of snow fell on the course the two days before the race, there was a big possibility that the event would be altered (not cancelled) severely. But the sun came through the day before the race and melted most of it. The course would be very muddy, but not impossible.

The kenyans took the race out very fast and nobody bothered to go with the fastest of them. By kilometer two of thirteen I found myself in 11th and by kilometer four I had moved up to 6th. I spent the next couple k chasing down one of the kenyans while the swiss and the czeck pulled steadily away from me. At the front of the race, jonothan wyatt was busy trying to pull in the lead kenyan. All positions stayed the same though and the kenyan won in a record time with wyatt two minutes behind. I secured my fifth place position (my worst place and fastest time on this course) ahead of gaiardo and the other two kenyans.

The legs still feel a bit tired from so much racing in june and the readjustment to the bike touring. Ailments are migrating around my body sonambulistically. this will go away soon. I hope.

Tomorrow I´m off to slovenia to run a race up grintovec. 9.6k with an 1800m vertical climb if I remember correctly. It will be the first grand prix race for me for the season. The competition will be no less than from this past weekend.

Chris is off to watch the Wednesday stage of the tour and return to the states on Thursday. Map is falling apart rapidly. Finishing even cow girls get the blues. Getting ready to start the worst journey in the world. Mustache is holding strong. Down a pair of socks. Up a pair of socks. Etc. etc.

europe: round three

i arrived in europe following a rather brutal selection race in new hampshire and spent the first few days relaxing in geneva... not running. i put my bike together with ease on the balcony of my friend´s house rather than in the busy terminal as i had last year. everything came together perfectly, nothing missing, not even the st. so-and-so that my sister glued to the cap of my bike tube for added safety and protection.

on the fourth of july, friend and former assistant cross country coach from high school, arrived in geneva at 8am. we covered nearly 110k by dusk to arrive at chamonix and the clouds parted just long enough for us to get a view of the mont blanc summit from town. we rode through switzerland for the next week, up and over many of the highest paved passes in europe - grimsel pass, furka pass, oberalp pass, and several others. chris quickly learned that yogurt and granola consist of at least half of my meals. also, he got to experience first hand cave dwelling, rickey-style.

we arrived in telfes, austria a couple days before the european mtn running championships. not being european, myself, i was not able to compete in the big race but did manage a come-from-behind win in the open race the day before. i was about a minute slower than my time from last year which i was more than pleased with as i was amidst what felt like the flu. i shivered my way down to the bottom of the mountain and got a good night sleep rather than heading to the gymnasium where the party usually goes late into the night with czeck beer, food and song.

we rode from there to the top of brenner pass and trained down into italy for a night of food and wine with some of the mtn running greats: martin cox, marco di gasperi and paul crake. chris and i left the next morning at the crack of noon for some more passes and a stunning display of the italian dolomites.

currently we are in heiligenblut, austria for the 10th annual grossglockner mountain race. this will be the third time that i have raced here... twice i´ve finished fourth. next week, onto slovenia and then.... don´t know where.

the body is holding up to the pressure, but just barely. enjoying round three immensly.

please go buy a copy of Trail Runner magazine. it has a story in there that i wrote last season about racing, training, biking and traveling in europe. also megan lund is on the cover who´s a lot cuter than me on the cover.

cranmore, us mtn. running championships, nacac

rickey here. just finished throwing back five pounds of pasta and double that in magic hat #9. matt erholtz has put back only half that for the record.

i raced both carpenter and joseph gray two weeks ago and was able to see a similar drive. they both have a fire that isn't so much fuled by a desire to win but rather on the hatred of losing (and by losing i mean second or beyond). joe came in third at mt. washington. from the finish of that race to the finish of today's race at mt. cranmore in new hampshire (serving as the national mtn. running championships, world championship selection race and north american, central american championships) i knew that he was going to be the man to beat. when he told me that he ran a speed workout on tuesday, while the rest of us were tapering, i knew it for sure.

the two lap course was an improvement from the one that paul kirsch put together a couple years ago... which is to say less masochistic and more competitive.

the field started off at a decent pace, many of the leaders dropping off after a couple kilometers. by the top of the first of two laps all the usual suspects were present. simon g., eric blake, joe gray, shiloh mielke, myself, zac freudenburg and matt byrne. joe led the downhill followed by zac, simon and myself. shiloh displayed the downhill running skills that earned him a top 30 spot at the world trophy two years ago in switzerland by passing me and several others. i can say, without hesitation, that he is the fastest runner on any tretcherous downhill that i have ever seen.

going into the second lap i was able to reel in shiloh, simon and matt but not zack or joe. joe had the race won by this point and i was concentrating on a top-three spot that would secure a spot on the u.s. mtn. running team for the world championships in italy on september 6th. i wanted to put as much distance on shiloh as possible as i knew that the gap between us would only shrink from the top to the finish - it was only a matter of turning it into gap large enough that he wouldn't be able to close it in time. matt and i ran the descent together for sometime before he pulled away.

i was able to maintain my fourth place position through the finish (winning a watch for finishing closest to my bib number - 5), missing a secure spot on the team to matt byrne by 4 seconds. overall, i was pleased with how the race played out. i felt a little flat going in to the race, i think as a result of the amount of racing i've been doing in the past month and the heavy training i was doing before that. i was especially surprised and pleased with the results of both zac f. and matt b. as they were the fifth and sixth men on the team last year in switzerland. closet trainers.

the fourth and fifth members will be selected at the Cheyenne Canon Mountain Race in Colorado Springs on july 26th. the sixth spot will be selected by team managers with input from the team itself. whether i get selected for that spot or not i will either be in italy to cheer the team on or to race. either way it's gonna be a good time.

great event!! i hope to put up some photos of the event in the next week.

we need more race reports from the women!

for more reports check out:
http://ddmountainrunr.blogspot.com/
http://www.usmrt.com/
http://www.whitemountainmilers.com/cranmore/
http://brandyerholtz.blogspot.com

and... and... props to the western states organizers for up-to-the-minute updates. congrats to anita ortiz!

"there is only one hill"

There is no race that I've run that can compare to Mount Washington. 7.6 miles with nearly 5000 vertical feet of elevation gain. The brutality of it lies entirely in consistency since the race director, Bob Teschek, is entirely right: "there is only one hill". Colorado offers roads with steeper climbs and more net gain but nothing that compares to a steady %11.5 grade for nearly 8 miles.

That's only the mountain. The competition has traditionally drawn one of the most elite crowds in American Mountain Running. Top finishers over the years have included world champions Jonathan Wyatt, Jay Johnson, Anna Pichrtova and other notables: Dave Dunham, Matt Carpenter, Daniel Kihara, Derek Froude... the list goes on. This year the list was no less notable: 2 time winner - Eric Blake, 3 time winner - Simon Gutierrez, Joe Gray (who beat me two weeks ago in the Teva Mtn. Games 10k), all-American and fellow Aspen native - Jon Severy, US Mtn. Running Team member - Matt Byrne... the list goes on.

The race started off per usual - with Simon well off in front. Severy tried to psyche out the field by cracking jokes and foaming at the pits. I took the lead from Gutierrez after the first mile and one mile past that, only Eric Blake and myself remained at the front. The two times that I've run this race before, I've watched Eric pull away from myself and the rest of the field around mile five. Listening to his breath, I knew that I would have to pull away from him early on. By the third mile I put a lead on Blake. The clouds provided an interesting element that I've not dealt with before in this race. You could not see much further than 100 feet ahead or behind, turning the race into more of mind game than I've ever had to deal with. I could never really be sure how far ahead of Blake I remained. The plus side of this coin was, of course, that Blake never really knew how far ahead I was.

I ran through the half way mark in 28:55 which put me on track for a sub-hour finish... just barely. My left Achilles started to flare up slightly which, though it never slowed me down, added immensely to the mental aspect of the race. I was constantly thinking that it might seize up completely and I'd have to deal with a poor finish, or worse - DNF. The problem remained at bay as I focused completely on holding my form.


By mile six the course finally made it's way above the blanket of clouds and I doubt there was anybody in the race in so much pain that they couldn't appreciate the view. You really did feel like you were in an airplane. With only a 1/2 mile to go, I knew that I had the race won. I eased up on my pace slightly, not thinking about the time. With 150 meters to go a friend from the side line yelled "20 seconds!!". I had forgotten about the 60 minute time bonus. Sprinting up the 22% final grade, I watched as the clock ticked 59:53 54 55 56. I crossed the finish line with two seconds to spare, to become the fifth man, second American to ever break the 60 minute barrier.

    1   1/129  Rickey Gates              28 M Boulder         CO              2   59:58  7:54
   2   2/129  Eric Blake                30 M New Britain     CT BAA          1 1:01:19  8:04
   3   3/129  Joseph Gray               25 M Lakewood        WA TEAM INO     3 1:02:35  8:15
   4   4/129  Matthew Byrne             34 M Scranton        PA              5 1:02:45  8:16
   5   1/93   Simon Gutierrez           43 M Alamosa         CO TEVA / S     4 1:04:16  8:28
   6   5/129  Jonathan Severy           27 M Winooski        VT NYAC        15 1:05:09  8:35
   7   6/129  Tommy Manning             33 M Colorado Spring CO NMC         38 1:05:47  8:40
   8   1/81   Jason Bryant              36 M Elkin           NC LA SPORT    16 1:06:13  8:43
   9   7/129  Matthew Russell           26 M Boulder         CO CMS         25 1:06:19  8:44
  10   2/93   Francis Burdett           44 M Worcester       MA CMS        142 1:06:39  8:47

                               *******  TOP 10 WOMEN OVERALL  *******
Place Div Name                      Ag S City            St Team     Race# Time    Pace 
===== === ========================= == = =============== == ======== ===== ======= =====
   1   1 Brandy Erholtz            31 F Bailey          CO             W1 1:10:53  9:20
   2   1 Tara Cardi                40 F East Greenwich  RI NARRA       W8 1:19:52 10:31
   3   2 Jennifer Campbell         26 F Newmarket       NH CRC        W72 1:20:58 10:40
   4   3 Alison Bryant             30 F Elkin           NC             W2 1:22:08 10:49
   5   2 Lisa Goldsmith            44 F Nederland       CO LA SPORT  W133 1:24:58 11:11
   6   4 Abby Mahoney              31 F Holyoke         MA CMS        W29 1:25:05 11:12
   7   1 Cathy Pearce              46 F Chelmsford      MA WHIRL       W5 1:26:29 11:23
   8   1 Tara Breed                38 F Englewood       CO            W17 1:27:33 11:32
   9   1 Donna Smyers              51 F Adamant         VT CVR        W27 1:28:01 11:35
  10   2 Suzy West                 46 F Putney          VT CSU        W14 1:28:34 11:40

video finish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWkqm-qLMP8

photos: (AP Photo/Gil Talbot), Dave Dunham

Coming up on Sunday I will be competing against much of the same field (and then some) at the Cranmore Hill Climb/USA & NACAC Mountain Running Championships in North Conway, NH. After that... EUROPE!!!

Here is a video that I made about my summer in Europe. You can find a higher quality version of this on youtube.

Music by Broken Social Scene.