Hitchcock 100

Hitchcock 100


Running 100 miles is really hard for me. elevating my HR and staying in that state for 16-17ish hours seems about my max l, time and time again. But I keep coming back. Because I will forever risk failure verse not showing up. I can take a loss here, but I will always show up.

Hitch 100 2019 was a dnf. A DNF bc I was not strong enough to fight through the fatigue and sore legs in the fridged cold any longer, that's what it was. I made mistakes at crucial times of the day.

This is how it went down. 

I had doubts before the race even started that people believed I could do this. Ik that's stupid, but my mind went there. I tried to make it come back, did some meditation, told myself I'm bad at that mediation thing, shifted to not even trained up enough for this thoughts, who am I kidding starting a race on the training I've done, what am I even doing? And we haven't even got to the start line. This is all Friday afternoon in the camper. Finally a distraction opportunity arises and I get to spend the rest of the evening with my best friends in the world almost getting booted from a Subway bc of pure honest joy and laughter of being in each other's presence. Then back in the camper, brain is good, stuff is set our for morning, alarms are set for 330 and 4:00. Tell myself I need good sleep. Out.

12:30 up - is it time yet ? No ok
2:30 check again.
4:45 watch vibrates with a call
"Hey where are you."
"Fuck!"
"I'll come get you. "
"Nah I'll be good. See y'all in a bit."

4:46 Panic. Disbelief and dissapintment.

4:47 no time. Pack bags and put on some clothes and hurry to the start. Run up the road and see everyone starting. Throw bag down, restroom, beet juice, degrading self talk, mirror glance , out the door, fake smile, feet on the dirt. Real smile.

back in the mix of runners

Trying to make the events of the morning light, sharing it with a side of laughter and nonchalantness. Dark trail, crappy clothing choices, dim headlamp, sleep in my eyes, fall. Profanity. Forced smile. Back up.

Campground A.S. - Camper. Change out of my pants that have pockets full of bullshit I grabbed but don't need. Leave in shorts and my tee and jacket. Ask myself about my choices. Convince me I don't have time to worry about them. Run. Run. Drink. Frozen. No water. Ugh! Get to Oasis Aid Station. Put hydration pack under coat. Be convincing in the fact that I'm fine. Question that myself. Let the thought fade. feel faded  Get back out of aid. Try drink later. Still frozen.

Get thru the first loop back to where I was a complete shitshow 2 hours ago. Regroup. Change out of shorts. Apply SNB, drop lbs of soaked clothes on the floor. Dry off. Switch to a handheld water bottle. Mentally tell myself i can get this back. Absorb words of encouragement. Make mental note to remember them. Body scan. New everything. Take time .be patient. Leave start finish. Head out on trail.

Talk myself up. Catch a glimpse of feeling 'in my groove" and feeling good. Grab onto it. Remember I love this all. Smile. Feel 'away from the world for a bit." Hang on to it. Remember I've been craving this day for months. Let myself lean into it. Free fall.  Run. Get to campground. Eat, enjoy the people. Meet fellow 100 miler runner, chat and get thru loop 2. Feel good coming in. See fam! Joy. Change wet clothes. Spend too much time. Feel good tho. Leave.

Freezing, can't get hands to warm up. mind stays focused on cold. Can't think of other things. Force it. Fight to get to campground, ask how far that runner friend is, bored and alone. Fight to try and catch someone to distract me. Get to Oasis. In a good mood bc I remember how I was last time I was here. Back out. Put in work. Climb some big hills much slower. Tell myself I may have 1 more loop in me. Question my training. Tell myself 50 is enough. Get loop 3 done.

Chat with fam at start finish. Eat food. Find out our friend dropped. Process that. Eat more food. Drink lots. Adjust who's pacing for loops 5&6. Vocally confess I don't think I have loop 5 in me. Let alone 6. Listen. Absorb.  Tell myself I'm doing ok. Get started on loop 4. Freeze. Execute tatics to warm my core. Find a good system of small changes to keep from getting too sweaty or too cold.  climb hills slower, run flats and downs  get to Oasis in good mood. Close out the loop wanting to be done and take 50 finish. Get talked into keeping going. Go out with AW. Pure joy. Laughter. Been excited for this. Legs are trash but we running.minimal time at aids. Loop 5 done.

Try and stop and take 50 finish. Ik deep down I don't have much left in me at all.  Talked into going back out with JK. Pure joy to be with her. Mostly hiking now, legs trash. Grateful to be out here with herm stomach starting to make it known it's gonna get real bad. Fear. Fear. Energy stores gone. Tell myself I want to take a break and figure out how to want to be out here. Lay in camper at campground A.S. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake. Check time figure I can still get it done.

Get pack. Headlamp. Pee. Get hand warmers, gloves. Ready. Get encouragement. Get told I can't go finish. Confusion. Stay calm,  Understanding. Onward.
Clean camper.
Hug Rd.
Drive.
Ihop
Drive
See Ellie, recap weekend with the girls, chat about lessons learned, crazy adventures and living life to the fullest.
Drive
Home
Soak
Write.
Pizza.

Trails,
Jeff

Sangre De Cristo 1

Sangre De Cristo 50K Westcliffe, CO September 2019

This weekend concluded with me driving to work on Monday morning feeling like I had the time of my life. Yes you read that right, the time of my life. I wouldn’t call it a renewed sense of love for this sport, because I didn’t loose a love for it. Maybe a reminder of how powerful one weekend of running in the mountains, spending time with the people who matter most to you and meeting new amazing friends can be. So let’s start at the beginning. Kiera, my mom (Crew Chief) and I headed out of Nebraska early Friday morning. I caught a quick 7 mile run that morning and Kiera got in a few miles before we headed out of town. We had lunch in Rexford, KS at a sweet little cafe.

Main Street somewhere in Kansas.

We had rented a camper that was nestled on a tree farm just outside Westcliffe, CO. We had to run into town quick and get our packets and pre-race dinner before returning back to our camper to sit in the hot tub and gaze out at the night sky. The night sky in rural Custer County CO is unlike anywhere else in the world, literally. It is the registered darkest place in the lower 48 and in the top 5 darkest in the world. So hopefully you can imagine the feeling of sitting in a hot tub at night, deep in the forest staring up at the sky. it was moments of my life that I will never forget. 

Race morning in the camper

Ok to race morning, we woke early, like real early. maybe 330/4ish. got moving and got to the start. I was pretty dang cold with my initial plan and went to the back of the Jeep to grab a jacket out of my bag. I had brought (like I always do) a bag with all my extra running clothes and a post-race change of clothes. Also a tote with all my running "gear." gels, packs, etc. As I get to the back of the Jeep I realize both the bag and the tote are not in there. There isn’t time to go get them at the camper, its over 30 minutes away, so the rest of the day I beat myself up about forgetting them. I wish I could of just shook it off but I'm not like that. Anyways I borrowed my mom's Broncos jacket and headed to the start line. Matt and I started the race together and the big climb up Music Pass. This climb did not feel too bad and we made the top in 1:10. It was on the climb up we met a guy from Boulder named Clay that we would see and get to run with on and off all day. A real solid dude and runner! At the top of music pass we met another new friend, Tracy. We all started chatting and laughing about various topics for the next few hours and had such a great day together! It was meeting and chatting with people out here that made this day so special.

Top of Music Pass the 1st time

We made it back to start/finish aid station at mile 9 in around 1:50. We saw my Mom and Kiera here and we were all in great spirits heading back out. The next part of the course was an out and back on the Rainbow Trail. This trail is awesome! This is the stuff trail runners dream of. It was rolling and a little rocky but not too technical. You'd get time to recover from ups and crush downs. We had so many good chats here. I did completely eat dirt at one spot though and Tracy, Clay  and Matt all stopped and helped me back up. Tracy even climbed down the mountain to get my bottle that went flying, (so nice!) it was trail running at its finest. I was fine with just scratches and such, nothing serious. At around mile 18 Matt and Tracy had to keep going (50 milers) and I turned around and headed back to (50K). I had a great section here of just solo running with some music playing out of my pack and crushing miles. I'd catch myself signing, probably a little too loud here and there. It was fun!

Matt on Rainbow Trail

me trying to run and take a selfie

pretty rainbow trail

I came back to the Start/Finish A.S feeling great. I was at about mile 23 with just one last climb and decent left. It was the same climb Matt and I did to start the race. I started out feeling like yes let’s get this and immediately was like OMG why is this climb so much harder this time! It is a 2,000 foot climb that goes over 4.4 miles, so not too terrible but the 2nd time I had absolutley no power to get up it. It wasn’t that my heart rate was getting high, it stayed under 100 on most of this climb, it was that I could not find any power legs. I did my best to just climb and climb to get to the top telling myself to just grind it out. I got to the top in 1:30 this time and was so relieved. I took a bit of time to taketake it all in; thanking God for this day.

The top of Music Pass the 2nd time

Grateful as can be.

the view i took time to take in.

on the way back down

After that it was a 4.4-mile descent back to the finish line. This part was fun!! I let myself stride out whenever I felt confident with my footing and really enjoyed the run back down. I was having a great time flying down the road into the Start/Finish when I saw my Mom and Kiera cheering, this reminded me of what a fun day it was for everyone and why 50K is such a great distance to pick. They weren't fatigued from all day and night crewing and waiting. Also, I'm back by around noonish and we get to have the rest of the day together.

We spent hours after that cheering runners in, crewing Matt and Tracy, chatting with others at the Start/Finish area. This race is about community and you feel it here. What John has put together connects people, both on the trails and when they get done. It is trail and ultra-running as a community and I hope to never have to miss this race in the future. It was the type of trail running weekend you day dream about on your runs.

Matt and Tracy came in in 1 minutes under 12 hours to finish the 50!! We were so excited to see them, the 50 miler is a serious beast out here and they both fricken crushed it! We all sat around chatting and freezing after the race until finally deciding to go get pizza and continue the chats. We all met up in Westcliff at the neatest pizza place (Tony's) and had a few more hours of laughs, trail chat, and recapping our days. Seeing Kiera be a part of this, joining right on in, cracking jokes and having fun made my night. More moments that I hope never fade from my mind. The best way to try and describe this day was that it was not a day where I had to remind myself to be present in any way. Sitting in that pizza shop, with these people after the day we had, laughing and sharing, I was 100% there, both on the trails and the rest of that day. 

We concluded the race day with a soak in the hot tub under the stars. We woke and headed to Pueblo for the 25th annual Pueblo Chili Festival and ate all the food and stocked up on a years’ worth of freshly roasted Pueblo Chilies!

 A Colorado, southwestern vibing, green chili eating, friend making, ultra-trail-running weekend shared with my daughter and mother is every bit living the days we daydream about.

I hope whoever is reading this, that you can make the days you've been day dreaming about happen, because that is what it's all about.

happy trails! -jeff

The finish of my 20th ultra finish.

Kiera in Pueblothe day after.

this sandwich is called the Fogeddaboutit because once you have it you will never forget about it. (true)

Rockin' K Trail Marathon 2019

Rockin K 2019

This was my 4th trip in the last 5 years down to Kanapolis the first weekend in April. I was on the road around 3:00 from Grand Island and arrived at pre-race pack-up a little before 7. The drive down was pretty much uneventful. I did free style some songs about running with my friends in Kansas. Those videos wil not be making this blog lol.

I got to meet up with Brady,  Alicia and Jodi at the pre-race dinner for some spaghetti and chatting about the course. Brady was doing his 1st 50 miler out here, Alicia was crewing him  and Jodi was pacing the last 25 with him. He totally crushed it! I shared whatever knowledge I had on the course from the 3 years prior as we chowed down our dinners.

The day quickly faded to night and cars started pulling out of the lot leaving just me and my Subaru Outback for the night. I found myself a spot and tried to catch some sleep. I need to figure out the mattress issue because I had another hard time side sleeping on the current pad.

Anyways I woke to the first racers coming in the morning and made my way out of the car. I slept in what I planned to run in so it was pretty nice to just throw on shoes  and  a hat be ready. This was the warmest start of any year I've been down here; it was around 45 degrees at the start. Crystal, Jenny, Mindy, Jodi, Brady  and I all hung around together chatting up till it was time to take the start line. They counted us down and we were quickly off. The half mile section on the road is always fast before we hit the trails. I was the 3rd person going into the trails with Jeremy (doing 50 miler) and a guy from Oregon (I forget his name) doing the marathon in front of me.

First m

The first 5ish miles I sort of struggled to find my flow. I felt more cautious than normal and I was stumbling more over rocks than I typically do. The turns weren't coming instictually and I had to always be looking for flags. I have nothing to blame it on,  I feel in the best physical shape of my life. It was just one of those things that started off slow. I did find it later on though. It was around the 3 mile mark I realized the front 2 were out of site and so was anyone behind me. Pretty much the rest of the race would be solo, which I loved. For the entire run I had a handheld water bottle with my normal morning matcha tea in it (amazing grass brand) and  2 chocolate Gu's in the pocket. I had no phone or pack, nothing else on me except those 2 simple things. I wanted the least amount to worry about as possible. The next 6 miles all felt pretty smooth, trying not to over exert. I love the trails here. a combo of rocky, prairie and sandy trails with some really cool rock formations. I filled up my water at the unmanned aid station at mile 6. It was somewhere between 6 and 8 ish i started seeing Jeremy in front of me again.

I wouldn't catch him until mile 13 when we entered the aid station. I did not need anything here so I just shouted out my number and rolled on. I chatted with him some at 14 and moved on to see if I could catch the other guy in front of me. I picked up the pace on this bluff loop. The bluff loop is the section from 13 to 18; it starts and ends at that aid station. It has a fairly significant amount of climb but also some pretty good runnable sections. I was thinking to myself if I push here I can find out at 18 how far ahead of me he is. I came into the aid station feeling really good. I thought I was around a 3:45 finish, which would be about 6th or 7th fastest time ever ran on this course in the 21 year history and a few minutes faster than my 3:47 in 2016. I had momentum, I was focused and ready to really push these last miles. I had 9 miles to go, 9 miles to try and see if I could catch this guy.

Smile every mile

At the aid station at 18 I asked them; How much time does the leader have on me?

focused

"Oh he is killing it, he left here about 20 minutes or so ago"

Ohh crap lol. wow. that is impressive. he would go on to finish in 3:29 for a new course record. I didn't even let myself entertain the idea well if he blows up in these last 9 and has to walk in the last few maybe you'll catch him. I set new goals for the remaining 9 miles. Things I could focus on, at first it was ok when you have an hour left see if you have a chance at a Personal Best on this course (3:47). when I got down to 1 hour left it was clear I didn't have enough left in the tank for that. I knew I had almost an hour ahead of 3rd place so the last hour of running was about focusing on "controlling the pain." I used this time to really play with the idea of - "you are in control of the pain", lets go back and forth in it and back out of it, understanding it, making peace with it, learning some things about it. This was how I spent the last hour of the 2019 Rockin K. I do that stuff on a long training run here and there but to be mindful enough to do it during a race when you are giving every bit of your effort was great data to gather and expierence.

Last bit of the race still wet from the waste deep water crossings and tired from running in the sand.

When I got to where I could see the clock I could see that I was close to running under 4 hours so I crushed the last half a mile to finish in 3:59. It's not my best but it was a really solid run. I was very happy with it; and I really enjoyed my time on the course.

coming in to the finish

the winner - (really fast dude)

getting my award for 2nd place

I enjoyed the race almost as much as I enjoyed the 5 hours that followed. I ate some food, drank some cold soda, changed and waited for Crystal to finish. Then her and I sat at the back of the Subaru and cheered runners in, ate some food,  drank some soda,  had a great time catching it up and waited on Jenny to come in. Then the all 3 of us sat around chatting, laughing, eating drinking and cheering runners in. This lasted most of that Saturday. Until finally I had to get on the road to get home at a decent time to see Suzi. 

post race vibes. - (I'm holding my own leg lol)

I loved this weekend, these trails with my closest trail running friends is incredible. I've had a hard time coming back from it though. The first 2 days I was in a sort of typcial post trail running weekend funk. The next 3 days thought I haven't been able to run;  and  I miss the outdoors and the ultra vibe. I've gotten through the week but the constant in and out of the trail life and the work life is mentally exhausting asI get older. You'd think it'd get easier but its one of the few things in this lifestyle that actually gets harder each year. It is still always worth it tho; even if it is for a short time on the trails in the ultra community. Hope you all have been finding time outdoors and on trails in your daily lives. All my best  and  Happy Trails!!!

Jeff

So happy to see her loving this sport again.

Crystal finishing back to back weekends. Praire Sprit & Rockin K'

Jenny coming in to the finish!

So happy for her.

Phil, stanley & kenny

workin it .

Bandera 100k

Bandera 100k 2019

Due to a lot more water in southern Texas than usual the course was moved in 2019 to Camp Eagle instead of Hill Park. I had studied Hill Park well and looked at previous runners Strava results, comparing their marathon times to mine to find out about would I could expect. I memorized miles between Aid Stations and packed my bags accordingly. Then when we found out it had moved to this other park I couldn't find the time to do the same for Camp Eagle. I just went with what I had already planned, just moving my 1 drop bag to the CrossRoads Aid Station that we visited the most often. I stuck with just my handheld water as the course had many opportunities to refill.


Kiera and I headed out of Nebraska around 2:30 on Thursday afternoon with a 14.5 hour drive ahead of us to the AirBnB in Bandera TX. We would only make about 4.5 hours of that drive Thursday because of an ice storm that was south near OKC. The other Bandera car in front of us has alerted us to how bad it was and I do not like driving in that junk so we got a room in Wichita. After finding our hotel I got to introduce Kiera to Braums. If you've spent anytime in the south, you know how wonderful this ice cream and food is at Braums. We went back to the hotel and watched Bruce Almighty, crashed early and got up around 7 to head back out on our trip.

Friday was going pretty well as we made our way through OKC and we were just about into TX when we decided to stop and get some food. McDonald's was one of the only choices so we stopped in. We got to chatting with an Army guy from Virginia who lived in that town. He informed us that their was no school for the snow storm that had came in. We were in shorts, unaware that their was a snow storm, I mean their was maybe an inch but it wasn't even sticking to the roads and was slushy and not icy. So we chatted away with him about the race for about 15 minutes or so and then went out and started to head towards the interstate. Soon as we got going the car was pulling to the right and we had to pull over, tire was completely flat. OK no big deal we can do this and I got to teach Kiera how to change a flat. Also taught her about staying positive and having fun regardless of what life throws at you.

We got the spare on and looked up where the closest tire place was; it was literally like .25 miles behind us; we could of just drove it there! Oh well, They fixed us up fast and we were back on the road to TX. We determined the deeper you get into Texas the more you feel Texas. We were on 2 lane highways driving through one little Texas town after another in the mountainous and hill part of the state. So much of Texas is so real to me, its not sugar-coated or politically correct. Its posted what they are feeling, experiencing and living; everywhere. It captured a piece of my heart. After some gravel roads and lots of laughs and fun we made the AirBnB Friday evening to see Matt, Rachel, Stacey, Shawn, and Lauren.

The evening was pretty chill and we went to bed early to be up at 3:30AM. We woke, got ready and made the 100 mile slow going windy drive to the park. We arrived and had about 45 minutes until race start. Jimmy found Matt and I and we got to chat about our plan for the day. Soon enough I was on the start line thinking OK here we go again; have some fun out there. I wasn't a bit nervous;  I was just excited. It was about 30 at the start but a  t-shirt w/gloves was enough.

I liked the pace at the beginning of the race as we tried to get a feel for the trail. It was soon apparent that the entire run would be rocky and rugged. I came into the first aid station, Crossroads at mile 5ish and was starting to feel a bit more warmed up. I didn't really need anything here and kept going. From here I pushed the pace to try and catch back up to Matt. I had some miles under 8 minutes here. I finally caught up to him on this one big climb by a fence. I was really happy to see him looking like he was doing well. He always crushes me on the big climbs (I need to get out to Colorado more this year). We chatted a bit then I started feeling good on one of the straightaways and we separated again. Before I knew it I was back at Crossroads aid station at 13.1 and I saw Kiera for the first time. This was so nice! She totally made my day out there. She would go back and forth between Crossroads and the start/finish and I got to see her smiling face so many times. I also saw Rachel here and got to yell hi from across the station. I left here feeling good and got in my zone to Windmill Aid Station and then to Wall (Mile 21.72). Shortly after wall I was chatting with a guy who turned out to be from Nebraska. We shared many miles together chatting away. This would bring me back to Crossroads at mile 25. I had to take a little time here to stretch out my hip flexer that was really acting up. I got it to loosen up but lost my running companion. The next session I didn't really crush, but I stayed moving OK, just trying to get myself to the Start/finish to pickup Jimmy (my pacer) and do a good check there of what I needed for the 2nd loop.



I came into mile 31 at 5:20ish.which may have been a bit faster than I should of but on this rocky terrain I knew the dark would slow me down quite a bit and wanted to get as many miles in during the day as I could. I saw Kiera and Lauren here and they helped me so much! I got gels and food and water. I was downing 1 handheld of water at every aid station and then filling it back up before leaving.

Jimmy and I headed out of there around 1:30 PM and would be back later that night. We got to chatting right away and had many good miles just chatting about the course and such. It was such a beautiful day, highs were upper 60s. I would get warm here and there but never too hot to manage. We would continue seeing Kiera, Lauren and now Rachel (she did the 50k and was done) at stops. My legs were really starting to get tired out now. I can always count on my legs barking for about 20 miles of an ultra; I just never know where in the ultra it'll be. Here it was about mile 20-40. After 40 they felt fine. We talked NBA, trail running, life, and many other random things as we made our way thorough the beautiful course. The sun went down on the the creek section, the most challenging part of the course to navigate for me. Jimmy guided me through it quickly and swiftly. It would of took me twice as long in there solo. I saw the whole gang (except Shawn; he was still out running) at the final Aid Station and they were all cheering so much. It made my day!! Jimmy and I headed out from here to the finish with some new energy. We came rolling in around 9:30 PM. I was delighted to be done but I also had so much fun. It felt ultra, it feel real and rugged and tough.I ended up 65th out of 300 who started.

Things I like that I did on this race.

No phone or music; sometimes for me this stuff helps me find my "zone" and get in a mental state that I crave, that I do this for. This time I was able to find that zone without the help of music which was great.


My mantra was great: "With love, for it all." Even in the dark times I would tell myself this and I would look at where I was and what and I was doing and I would just smile and appreciate it all.


Paid attention to my body signals and if I started to feel motion sickness coming on I would take time to stop moving. This prevented me from getting sick for the first time in an ultra in quite a while.

I ended up with no blisters and not even really sore feet. Nike Trail Kiger 4's for the win!

Many balanced, "in the zone" miles. Felt "In the moment" all day long.

Didn't work out so well in this race
I did my lap time thing that I had good luck with at the Hawk gain. Using this I focus on each mile and hitting a time for it. I wasn't into it on this one and it just went away shortly into the run. I was not worried about it. Maybe because of the terrain.


Course knowledge, I felt like I could of read and understood it better before hand.



Final thoughts:
All in all I loved this race, this course and the atmosphere of another Tejas Trail event. I want to come back for Bandera 2020 if it's on the original course to compare the two. If not, maybe to see if I can break 12 hours out here next year. Absolutely loved it! The volunteers, my crew and my friends; you are all the absolute best and the reasons I can't get enough of this damn sport. Love you all so much.

Happy Trails!

Jeff