Bob Graham Round

I always thought Engand was a bit bigger, but it was ony six and haf hours from the southeast corner in Kent to the nothwest corner in Cumbria, where I am currenty learning what I've gotten mysef in for: Wastach 100 elevation gain in 2/3rds the distance, with 42 'tops' over lots of rocks, snow and bogs. This one could get a little crazy. The weather foreast looks relatively benign, so that's something to be thankful for, but there will udoubtedly be wind to deal with. Kick off is at 2am tomorrow morning (T-11 hours).

The view from Wickersgil, where we are staying.

Crew vehicles

Vertical Beer Mile 2011

The VBM start line

When you mix a rugby playing background with a hill running present, it would appear that you end up with a vertical beer mile champion. That's right folks, Sir Clark came back to The Hill and proved once again that he can outdrink, outrun and outplay any and all challengers, and we had 22 of them this year.

Dakota Jones may claim some obscure record in the Grand Canyon or a top finish and a bunch of coin from some corporate race out in the wilds of Marin County, but put him on the purest of big stages - one mile, 750 feet of vertical gain and 48 oz of froth - and the kid clearly needs some tutoring. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The sound of the gun had barely finished echoing around the valley floor before I was off and running, Banquet Beer no.1 still finding its way down the pipes. Poof, gone, nobody in front, just footsteps and some loud eruptions behind. Horsecow Lonac was along for the ride, and by beer aid one it looked like it was going to be a two horse race, with Pete and Alex the only other competitors working their second beer as Horsecow and I took off for the second quarter in search of our third beer.

Horsecow looked like he wanted to make a race of it, and we hit beer three together, both taking a few seconds to get our breathing under control before hitting the froth. Again, I was a second or two quicker on the guzzle, even managing to pull away slightly on the flatter section of the third quarter before rescinding the lead on the steep stuff as we drew close to the final beer station. But I was just catching my breath. Guzzling beers while hyperventilating is best avoided if you want to keep the chunks at bay.

Leaving beer aid three, I had sensed some Horsecow hesitation - maybe even some pain. As we rolled into the final beer stop, the Horsecow banter sounded very much like the flapping of a white flag. Time to twist the knife. My beer was finished before Horsecow had even blown the froth off his beer. The last quarter ended up a victory lap. I hit the tape in 12 minutes and 15 seconds for a six minute PR and CR.

Pulling up the hill I couldn't help but reflect on an awesome season. And the thought came to me that maybe if I could find a way to sell this amazing victory to the ulrarunning world, they might just reconsider propelling me into ultrarunning immortality by lobbying the UROY voters - through the iRunFar discussion forum - to Vote For Nick. I mean, I don't want to toot my own horn, but this VBM defense in course record fashion is huge...HUGE...so come on America, let's make it happen. I've done my part.

Not to get too caught up in the immensity of yesterday's happenings from my own glorious standpoint, I would like to bring attention to the arguably more exciting happenings in the women's race.

Finish line officials: Kristel and Victoria.

Readers of this blog may not be familiar with the name Celeste O'Slusher, but in Fort Collins running and drinking circles the feisty Irish Bostonian is legendary. And lining up at the bottom of the hill, the defending champion was the heavy favorite for the VBM tiara.

But there had been some murmurings from the pack. Another Clark (mispelled with an 'e') had been quietly talking up her drinking powers, while the diminutive Jessie W, a relative newcomer to the Fort Collins trail scene, had been warning anyone who would listen to not underestimate her magical beer consumption prowess. I mean the girl has spent time living and drinking in Hoboken, NJ.

Mindy, Jessie and Lindsay putting away their start line beers.

And so we waited with baited breath and gaseous stomachs at the finish line for lights to emerge.

Would Celeste make the overall podium again?

No, the karmasutra-like grunts coming around the corner were unmistakably Stevensonian. Pete had managed to keep his lunch intact this year for an impressive third-place finish. He was followed a minute later by Mr. Consistency himself, and last year's runner up, Alex May. Seabeck powered across the line another minute in arrears for fifth, and then the excitement hit fever pitch.

Another light, a female form, and...wait...an upset. Mindy came cruising through to pull off an awesome Clark(e) VBM sweep, setting a new female course record in the process. In the close-fought battle for second, Jessie managed to outrun Celeste over the final quarter edging her out of silver by a scant nine seconds. Exciting stuff folks.

The Clark(e) sweep

Silver

The pain and the glory. Celeste gives up the tiara.

What happened to Young Money Jones you ask? Not his day, and clearly not his discipline, but unlike his youthful compatriot, Slow Aaron Marks, he did keep his lunch down. Aaron, in a post-race interview, claimed he was merely exacting some revenge after a year of frustration.

"Towers tortures me every week, so this was my chance to puke all over it."

Tough night for Jones.

"And then I drank another beer..."

Your 2011 VBM results:

Nick: 12:15!
Horsecow: 13:00
Pete: 14:56
Alex: 16:11
Dave: 17:32
Mindy: 17:50!
Jessie: 19:01
Celeste: 19:10
Jesse: 19:30
Kyle: 19:49
Mike: 21:05
Dakota: 21:22
SAM: 28:08
Slush: 31:05
Lindsay: 31:05
Sam: 31:06

Sam may have the Towers FKT, but not when there's beer involved. Last place today, bud.

Relay

Ginny & Jenn: 19:26
Chris & Steph: 22:08
Mary & Marie: 23:28

Marie showing off the little finger technique, a common trait among French beer drinkers.

Chunky Cheeks 2011

Another Chubster in the books, and another fun day on the trails. We had 60 official finishers and probably another 10 or so who didn't get their name on the finishers' list, but who the hell wants to be credited for an eight hour 50k anyway? The underfoot conditions were certainly challenging, but as we were able to cash in one of our 300 days of annual Front Range sunshine we had a picture perfect bluebird day, so things were just peachy.

In a show of Front Range unity, we had representation from the Colorado Springs CRUDsters, the Denver trail runners, the Longmont trail runner, and geez even some runners from Boulder managed to tear themselves away from The Republic for the day. Oh, and Aspen and Wyoming were represented too. The 7:00 a.m. start was easily the most popular with somewhere in the region of 30 starters, followed closely by the 7:35 crowd (er, duo), the 7:50 crowd (er, duo), the 8:00 am crowd of 10-15 runners and the 20 or so 9:00 am starters.

And then it was off to the top of Horsetooth with D.Bo, Burch, Jason Koop, Dan Vega and Jason Schlarb who was impressively in for the full 50k despite running a hard TNF50 miler the weekend prior. Backtracking off the rock, we caught up with Young Money Jones who was already 10 minutes in arrears, which was cause for extreme question marks regrading his top finish at the TNF50, compounded soon thereafter by an obscene and blatant case of course cutting. Serious questions need to be asked.

And so we rolled on, slipping and sliding our way up Stout and Spring Creek, dropping into the Mill Creek abyss before grinding our way up Howard in search of an Arthur's summit and a stop for views and calories. The Timber descent was snowy but mercifully ice-free. After a quick stop for water at the Lory Visitors Center and a miraculously ice-free ascent of Well Gulch, followed by a slippery crossing of Overlook, we made a quick drop in to visit with Slow Aaron Marks who was manning the Arthurs aid station at mile 21 or so.

With all the snowy cross sliding, my hips and groin were barking by this stage and the thought of Sawmill/Carey/Towers was just heinous, but eventually we left SAM's aid to negotiate the nasty footing on the valley and the fourth and final ascent of the day. My lack of caloric intake caught up with me on the climb and I trudged through a semi bonk before rallying for the final four miles from Wathan back to my house and the finish line.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and sharing the day. And thanks also for leaving so much beer in my fridge. See you next year for the third rendition.

7:00 am

7:35 am

8:00 am

9:00 am

7:00 am runners starting up the Horsetooth Rock trail

South side of the Tooth from Audra

Celeste and Ziggy posing under Horsetooth

Sarah and Alex notch a Horsetooth summit

Longs and Meeker from top H'tooth

Sarah and Rick up Stout

Runners on Mill Creek

Despite our best efforts, Cat still managed to take her mandatory wrong turn

Found wandering around and lost at the base of Arthurs Rock. Kristel, Jenn, Cat.

Cat on the Arthurs descent

Arturo

Sam and Slush. Epic on Arturo

Pete and crew pick their way down Arthurs

Rick Hessek and Brad powering up Mill Creek and Howard on their way to an Arthurs summit

Aaron's back of the car aid station



Running partners for the day: D.Bo, J.Schlar, R.Bur, D.Ve, J.Koo & D.O.G



Wasted on Sawmill, Carey, Towers

Post-race festivities

Your 2011 Chubby Results

Rob tells me that Shannon (pictured) was the winner in the women's 50k with a time of 7 something.

Cheeks

Banner is up, course is kinda marked, weather forecast looks good, and the trails are buried. The second annual Chub is setting up perfectly.

We'll have a better idea of trail conditions tomorrow, but from what I saw this morning on a jog up Towers, it looks like the more remote trails haven't seen a whole lot of traffic, while the more popular ones are well packed in. Snow depth doesn't look too intimidating - maybe two to five inches of actual sink on virgin snow. There might be a bit of ice in places and some drifts to wade through, but I doubt it will be significant, so I'm actually going to stick my neck out and say that we're probably going to have a relatively decent go of things.

Course will probably be marked a little lighter than it was last year as I've been out of town all week. I'll do what I can today and tomorrow and should hopefully get most of the intersections in Horsetooth tagged. Rob is taking care of Lory, so that will probably be flagged well. Either way, plan on bringing the course map and directions to avoid getting lost. There are two intersections that get crossed twice in different directions, meaning a 50-50 chance of choosing the wrong direction if you don't have a map or prior course knowledge.

There will be three separate starts: 7:00, 8:00, 9:00; and three separate courses: JV (21.5, 5,500'), Marathon (25.5, 6,500'), and El Chubbo Grande (31.5, 7,500'). All courses share the same route for the first 12 miles through the Horsetooth section of the course.

Rules:

No whining
No bitching
No blaming the RD if you get lost.

Run finishes at my house between 2:00 & 3:00 for a post-race pot luck, brew share and Western States lottery look-up.

CRs (I think):

JV Men: Justin Mock (3:25)
JV Women: Marie-Helene Faurie (6:32)

Marathon Men: Tim Long (4:44)
Marathon Women: Darcy Africa (5:10)

Chubster Men: Pete Stevenson (5:44)
Chubster Women: Jenn Malmberg (7:43)

Week Ending December 5

Mon - 6 miles (700') easy. Valley trails.

Tues - AM: 8 miles intervals. 2.5 miles w-u, 1.5 mile c-d. Cemetery workout. Mile, 800, 880 x 2. Started out stiff as a plank from the weekend. Probably need a good 30-40 minutes to warm up for these, but it's a struggle to get up early enough to get more than 15 mins in. Went super easy on the first mile/800, then upped things a bit once warmed up, but still couldn't get any 800 turnover: 5:36, 2:41, 2:35, 5:14, 2:36, 2:37.
PM: 6.5 miles (1,200') easy. A lap and three-quarters of Reservoir Ridge in the dark on the FCTR social run. This is a terrible route to run in the dark - loose rock everywhere.

Weds - 6 miles (700') easy. Valley trails.

---------------------------------------------------
January: 440.5 miles (45,850')
February: 304.5 miles (39,200')
March: 469.5 miles (67,100')
April: 427 (62,000')
May: 509.5 (92,500')
June: 323 (54,900')
July: 303.5 (79,700)
August: 297.5 (70,000')
September: 202 (37,500')
October: 373.5 (68,150')
November 377.5 (67,400)

Total: 4,028 miles (684,400')
Avg: 366 miles (62,218')
---------------------------------------------------

Thurs - AM: 9 miles (1,100') easy with Slush and Celeste in blinding sideways snow on Centennial. Didn't bother upping the tempo at all coming back. Just ran and got it over with, although once we turned and got the tailwind, it was really quite pleasant.
PM: 8 miles (1,800') Towers. There was some waist-deep drifts in places lower down on the hill and the rest was good old-fashioned trudging in heavy, slippery snow. Ran every step, but still couldn't break 50 minutes. Nonetheless, a great workout. Nine of us out, which given the torturous conditions wasn't half bad.

Fri - 0 miles

Sat - 0 miles

Sun - 0 miles

Total: 43.5 miles (5,500')

Dana has been out of town all weekend, which has meant no running for me the last three days, but that's okay. No Hardrock either, and that's okay too. Glad I signed up for Western States now, I suppose. With no Hardrock, I move on to plan B, which I just made up. I think plan B is going to include a crack at Leadville, in addition to a few other bits and bobs that I've been thinking about for July.

Pieces coming together for the Bob Graham Round, which is now just a couple of weeks away. I've got commitments from some awesome UK-based runners on the pacing side of things, which is apparently a necessity for an official round. Terry Conway, the winner of this year's Lakeland 100 and current Lakeland CR holder, has been kind enough to offer up his services, so I'll probably look to take advantage of that for a few of the early sections, then Clive King - a BGR vet - will likely be picking up some of the tail-end slogging, and then I think I have some pacers ready to run the middle sections thanks to the networking skills of club secretary, Morgan Williams. I am somewhat blown away by all the offers of help from people I have never met, but also highly encouraged to discover that the U.K. trail/fell/ultra community is as supportive and close knit as it is over here in the U.S.

Finally, if you got lucky in the Hardrock lottery and you're looking for an awesome training race, then consider the Fort Collins Quad Rock 50 in May. The unrelenting up and down nature of the course makes it an excellent Hardrock simulator. Pete and I are really excited to be showing off the Horsetooth/Lory trails here in our backyard. We think we have a pretty special course and we're determined to make this a kick-ass, showcase event for Front Range trail running, so come on out and join the fun. Registration opens on Wednesday.

Do you like to run hills?

Then come on out to Fort Collins on May 12 and run a whole bunch of them.

Registration opens Dec 7.