Timp Trail Marathon, shhh, don't tell anyone this is a great race

I suppose I shouldn’t advertise this, but if you want an awesome spring race, go run the Timp Trail Marathon.  Marc and Shaun do a great job and I have no idea why this race does not fill to capacity.  I’ve been there every year since it started and it gets better each time.  Seriously, go run it.

While my time this year was a lot slower than the last time I ran it, I ran slower on purpose and I still had a great time.

I carpooled with my friend Curtis and we managed to arrive and get checked in after the start of the race, like 5 minutes after.  Needless to say, there was no one around other than Marc’s wife Jessica to check us in.  Since we started late, Curtis and I decided to just pretty much take it easy and just enjoy the run.  He had never run this race or any of these trails before, so it was fun to give a blow-by-blow account as the miles went on.



Curtis and I going for a stroll          Photo: Lori Burlison

As usual for this race, the weather was iffy for most of the time.  Cloudy, cool, a bit of light rain here and there.  Not the downpour of last year, but still, if you want some questionable weather to run in, this race seems to always have it.

This race has a bit of everything.  Nice easy cruising, a couple of nice climbs, including 700’ in 0.5 miles and one of over 2000', gorgeous scenery (especially going up Grove Creek Canyon), some super technical downhill, shoe sucking ankle deep mud if the conditions are right, and some screaming downhill single track at the end.

So, nothing eventful happened.  I didn’t take any pictures but you can find plenty online.  I ran my second slowest time here, just under six hours, but I really didn’t care too much.  I had put in a lot of miles during the week and a fast (for me) time was not in the cards anyway.

 

Great homemade chili at the finish line, the finisher medals are pretty unique, and the shirts were great.  Non-tech shirts.  I have enough tech shirts, so having one I can just wear around is nice.

About time I finished                 Photo: Lori Burlison

Both the men’s and women’s course records were pretty much blown away.  Britta Trepp, my awesome Buffalo Run volunteer coordinator managed to crush her existing course record by something like 10 minutes.  Yeah, she's that fast.

 



 

Shoes - I wore my La Sportiva Crosslite 2.0's. Yeah, I think I'm going to switch. I wore those same shoes for the Zion 100 and my feet were trashed after. I figured that for 26 miles, I would be ok. Nope, once again my feet hurt at the finish. I think I'm going with my Altra Lone Peak's for my next race.

Nutrition - Not much, it was only 26 miles. Ate a wonderful chocolate chip cookie at the 12 mile aid station, ate some Trader Joe's trail mix, drank about 40 oz. of water and couple of cups of coke.

Added bonus, restaurant review time.

So I thought I'd throw out a restaurant review since I haven't done that in quite awhile.  Saturday evening after the race, Karen and I went to Twigs Bistro and Martini Bar at Farmington Crossing.  We had never been there before, but had heard good things about it.  It didn't disappoint.

They have a selection of 36 different martinis, plus a great selection of other adult beverages.  Their food menu is filled with lots of interesting dishes.
since it was a martini bar, Karen and I decided to start out with a martini.  With 36 different ones on the menu, picking one out was kind of hard to do.  I started out with a black stiletto and Karen had an ultimate lemon drop.   

Both were excellent.  We had the butternut squash flatbread as an appetizer.   While the flabread was very good, the accompanying sauce overwhelmed the subtle flavor of the squash.  Definitely just put a very light drizzle, if any, of the sauce on. 
For the main course, I ordered the crab mac and cheese, and Karen ordered the pepper salmon. 

Now normally I'm not a big fan of shellfish and usually won't order shellfish anything.  This, however, was good.  Definitely would order this again.  Karen loved her salmon.  I didn't get a picture of that.
After dinner, we ordered another round of martini's.  This time I had a classic martini while Karen ordered a blood orange.  Once again, both were excellent.
Price wise, it can be a bit expensive ordering a couple of drinks, dinner, dessert, etc., however, since we don't go all out very often, we decided it was worth it. 
So, we ultimately judge a restaurant by whether we would go back again or not.  For Twigs, we'd definitely go back.  It's a great place if you want to get some great food, hang out with friends, etc.

 

Isn't she a picture of  beauty and sophistication?

 

Salt Flats 100, I came, I ran, I bailed

I need to remember the words in this picture.

Prologue - 

I had these big plans again this year to do both the Zion 100 and the Salt Flats 100.  Thank goodness they were three weeks apart this year, and not one week apart.

I had been checking the weather the week before the race, like I always do.  I don't like weather surprises in a race.  It was calling for cool (50's and 60's during the day, low 40's at night).  I can handle those temps.  It was also calling for a 50% chance of rain Friday, going up to 90% Friday night.  If you have wondered what exactly a 50% chance means, according to the weather service, a 50% chance means that 50% of the forecast area will experience rain at some point during the forecast period, the other 50% of the forecast area will not experience rain.  That meant for Friday night, 90% of the race area would see rain.  I don't like running in the rain.  You get wet, you get cold, it's miserable. 

Anyway, in anticipation, I packed every drop bag with some sort of dry, warm clothes, beanies, gloves, long sleeve t's, stretchy pants, etc.

I went out Thursday evening, checked into my room late and managed to get a somewhat reasonable amount of sleep before getting up early.

I made it out to the race start with about an hour to spare, so i just sat in the car to keep warm and waited.  Unlike past years, it was overcast, so there would be no spectacular sunrise.  At least the temperature wasn't too bad, maybe in the upper 50's with a slight breeze.  All this would change later in the day.

Race time -

I caught up with a few friends as we waited for the start and Vince got us started right on time, 7am.  We all began our 16 mile trek across probably the flatest ground on the face of the earth, yeah, there was no elevation gain or loss here.

I found myself running alone for the vast majority of this race.  This is something I really like about running ultras and smaller races.  I don't mind chatting with other runners, but for the most part, I like to be alone and run my own race rather than someone else's.  Just me, the course and time.

The first few aid stations were pretty uneventful.  In and out in just a few minutes or less at each one.  My times were mostly according to my plan, maybe a bit slower, but I'm always optomistic with my race plans.

We didn't do any climbing at all until we left the aid station at 22.6 miles.  At that point, we make a climb of about 1000' in about 3 miles or so.  I usually walk most of this, but I tried to at least trot some of the less steep parts this climb.  Downhill to the hastings Cutoff aid (31 miles), short stop, then out to the most remote part of the course.  9 miles north, then 10 miles back, six of it on the mud flats.  The mud flats is probably the most monotonous part of the course.  Walking this was not an option, so i just put my head down and ran.  During this time I could see showers starting to form across the valley against Pilot Peak. At least they stayed on that side of the valley....for the time being.

I got back to the Hastings Cutoff aid (50 miles) in pretty good time, 10.5 hours, so I was still on track to go close to 24 hours.  As I was sitting there, all of the sudden the wind picked up and it started raining.  This did not bode well I thought.  I took off from there into a vicious headwind and pelting rain.  I got about a quarter mile out and seriously thought about turning around, but I kept going.  After a bit the rain did stop, and the wind actually died down quite a bit and it was a pleasant run to the 61 mile aid station.  by then the sun was setting and peeking out from under the clouds.  I was hoping beyond hope that maybe there would be good weather overnight.  As I ran to the 67 mile aid station, I could see some stars.  I made pretty good time going back over Silver Island Pass and to the aid station at 74 miles, but just before I got there, the rain started coming down again.  It was different this time, gentler, steadier, and without nearly as much wind.  By the time I got to the 74 mile aid station, I was getting damp.  When I left there I remembered that I had put a garbage bag in my pack just for this.  I dug it out, put it on and kept going.  It helped for awhile, but this section was uphill and just steep enough that I couldn't run and generate any body heat to keep me warm.  I started getting colder and colder.  Not only that, but the rain was picking up and it was getting a bit windier, and the temperature was dropping.  Now I was cold, wet, and miserable.  I knew I had more dry clothes at the Nevada aid station (80 miles), but I also knew that I had a 1500' climb ahead of me and that it would just get colder and windier.  I finally got to the Nevada aid station at about 2am and shortly after decided to pull the plug.  The thought of another 20 miles of being cold, wet, and miserable was a bit much.

After deciding to pull the plug, I still had to wait over two hours until someone could pick us up and take us back to the start.  I had changed into my dry clothes, but I still never got really warmed up.

 

Aftermath -

So that's it.  Another 100 mile DNF.  As usual, when I DNF I learn something.  This time is no different.  I've been trying to figure out what I could have done differently that would have allowed me to finish.  Warmer, dryer clothes?  That would have helped.  I don't have any rain gear to speak of, and I certainly didn't bring it along other than a rain shell and stretchy pants.  Don't think that would have kept me dry for long, certainly not another 20 miles.  So yeah, rain gear would have helped.

I think what it really boils down to or me this time (and maybe other times as well), is a lack of patience. 

I was on a pretty good roll time wise.  Had good weather prevailed, I maybe could have gone sub-24, who knows.  Other than being cold, wet, and tired, I felt good, no body issues to speak of, no injuries.  If I had the patience to wait for an hour or two to try and warm up a bit more before venturing out, that may have made the difference.  My trouble is, I couldn't see beyond the misery I was in at the moment, I just wanted it to end now.  I mentally checked out.  Would having a pacer have helped?  Who knows there as well.  If I had a pacer and told that person to not let me drop for any reason other than injury, would that have kept me going?

So, I think the key lesson here is patience and seeing beyond the miserable present.

So yeah, I am kind of disappointed at not finishing.  Course conditions were epic to say the least, but others finished, and I really had no reason to not finish other than a lack of patience and will.  I just didn't want to be out in that crap. 

This guy camped out Thursday night.  It was dry then.

6" of water out on the salt flats

 

Other stuff -

My mile splits were remarkably consistent for the 80 miles I did run.  Check out the table.  I slowed down on the uphills obviously, but the flat miles were the same.

Salt Flats splits
Mile	Pace	Elev (ft)
1	12:23	-3
2	9:46	0
3	10:14	3
4	10:08	0
5	10:07	0
6	10:35	0
7	10:38	0
8	10:41	0
9	10:53	0
10	13:04	0	Aid station
11	13:11	0
12	10:31	0
13	10:25	0
14	11:04	0
15	10:20	7
16	14:36	7	Aid station
17	11:25	-10
18	10:30	6
19	10:29	28
20	12:27	14
21	11:19	-19
22	11:34	71
23	16:36	202	Aid station
24	16:01	396
25	15:50	356
26	16:08	-19	Aid station
27	11:07	-411
28	10:34	-361
29	10:28	-205
30	12:17	27
31	12:22	53
32	20:58	36	Aid station
33	13:10	-70
34	11:33	-37
35	12:01	10
36	14:14	102
37	17:53	271
38	15:47	101
39	11:36	-279
40	18:32	64	Aid station
41	12:43	-303
42	11:54	5
43	11:21	1
44	12:19	-3
45	13:25	-3
46	11:15	0
47	11:32	2
48	13:42	39
49	13:48	84
50	14:15	11
51	32:15:00	6	Aid station
52	13:44	-32
53	11:43	-83
54	13:24	-13	Aid station
55	13:10	1
56	13:00	3
57	12:38	7
58	16:46	7
59	13:34	-1
60	17:06	0
61	11:15	-6
62	19:49	7	Aid station
63	15:14	117
64	14:44	63
65	15:57	-114
66	11:54	-73
67	13:04	-15
68	28:28:00	123	Aid station
69	18:42	291
70	17:56	178
71	14:47	-238
72	18:38	5
73	16:04	20
74	27:08:00	22	Aid station
75	17:50	56
76	17:18	103
77	18:24	25
78	20:31	-35
79	19:06	-116
80	19:04	-84
0.8	1:28:03	-73	Aid station

 

 

Mile	Split	Elevation change
1	9:57	-3
2	9:46	0
3	10:14	3
4	10:08	0
5	10:07	0
6	10:35	0
7	10:38	0
8	10:41	0
9	10:53	0
10	11:27	0
11	12:39	0
12	10:31	0
13	10:25	0
14	11:04	0
15	10:20	7
16	11:08	7
17	11:25	-10
18	10:30	6
19	10:29	28
20	12:27	14
21	11:19	-19
22	11:34	71
23	15:21	202
24	16:01	396
25	15:50	356
26	13:28	-19
27	11:07	-411
28	10:34	-361
29	10:28	-205
30	12:13	27
31	12:22	53
32	12:44	36
33	12:48	-70
34	11:01	-37
35	12:01	10
36	14:14	102
37	17:02	271
38	15:40	101
39	11:18	-279
40	14:59	64
41	12:38	-303
42	11:54	5
43	11:21	1
44	11:58	-3
45	13:25	-3
46	11:15	0
47	11:32	2
48	12:59	39
49	13:48	84
50	13:26	11
51	12:49	6
52	12:34	-32
53	11:43	-83
54	13:24	-13
55	13:10	1
56	12:50	3
57	12:38	7
58	14:32	7
59	13:30	-1
60	14:22	0
61	11:15	-6
62	12:53	7
63	15:14	117
64	14:44	63
65	12:04	-114
66	11:54	-73
67	13:04	-15
68	16:06	123
69	17:48	291
70	17:43	178
71	13:49	-238
72	14:22	5
73	15:56	20
74	15:04	22
75	16:32	56
76	16:55	103
77	17:30	25
78	18:36	-35
79	18:55	-116
80	17:45	-84
0.8	13:13	-73