For all you ladies out there, Hind clothing is running a promotional give away, two lucky people will get outfit with some wonderful clothes. Just fill out a few lines on the linked form, who knows, maybe we could be twins 🙂
Last day of work and only seven, yes seven days until the start of UTMB. I’m just a little excited to be catching a flight to Switzerland Sunday to begin my 3 weeks of travel with family and friends.
Nick crushing Hope Pass, we were shortly in 8th place until a hip injury ended Nick’s Leadville 100 race early.
Quick recap of last weekend; I headed to Leadville to pace/crew Nick Pedatella at the Leadville 100, the third race in his attempt to complete the Grand Slam of ultrarunning (Western States, Vermont, Leadville, Wasatch). He started off really strong, and I picked up him at the Winfield turnaround in 10th place. We hammered it up Hope Pass, but as we cruised down the backside I could tell something wasn’t quite right as he began to have a bit of a hitch in his gait. By the time we got to Twin Lakes inbound he was experiencing sharp pains in his hip joint, which would ultimately force him to drop out of Leadville and the Grand Slam. Nick’s had a rough year, and I hope he comes back stronger next year, as he’s one hell of a runner.
Nick Clark cruising around Turquoise Lake to a 2nd place finish at the Leadville 100.
Grand Slammer Dennis Ahern running up the Boulevard at the Leadville 100.
While the organization of Leadville leaves much to be desired (my thoughts on that are well known), the runners and their efforts inspired me and rekindled my enthusiasm for racing. From the amazingly fast finishes by Grand Slam runners Ian Sharman and Nick Clark, to the 29hour finishes of those who had struggled through a long night just to walk down that red carpet for the first time and be called 100mile finishers; the stories of strength, perseverance and triumph abound. The last race I ran was Quadrock back in May, and it was far from a good race for me personally, so I’m definitely looking to redeem myself at UTMB.
Here I stand, a mere week away from participating in the biggest race I’ve even been apart of, feeling rested, healthy and extremely excited just to toe the line and see what happens. While my volume has not been quite as high as I would have liked (780miles and 225,000ft gain since June 1st), I need to trust that the quality of training I’ve put in will pay dividends. The next time I check-in here it’ll be from somewhere in Europe! I’ll post a link to the race tracking website later, for now here’s a little video from the 2011 UTMB to make you jealous. Happy trails to everyone, run fast, run healthy, but mostly run happy. A special thanks to Hind clothing for supporting my adventures and VFuel Endurance gel for keeping me energized throughout the long days.