4th Dimension Winter AR

Let me start off by saying that the first ever adventure race that Yumay and I organised together was awesome, as that is all that really matters! We had an interesting time leading up to the event, its not easy, that s for sure. The permits, course design on everchanging snow conditions, racers that change their mind if and with whom they ll race, and volunteer coordinations sure take it out of you even just getting there. Saturday morning (the race was Sunday) Ruri and I met at Hyak Lodge, where the race would eventually start less than 24h hours later, and had a mission to complete. To put out all the 21 checkpoint flags.. preferentially in the right location, as one does not want to mess with tired, angry adventure racers!
The whole thing started off pretty disasterous.... the batteries of the GPS died, due to extreme cold, and having to constantly carry them in my pockets to warm up was cumbersome.... then I found that one CP was slightly misplaced on the map... what to do? Replace in the field or on the map? After an hour of no major disasters my snowshoes broke apart?? WHAT!?! Seriously, just broke in two different places, and I did not even run very hard...
So after a quick stop at the lodge we went onwards, me with new snowshoes, to finish setting the course. It got better and better, and at the end I was almost having fun! The stress levels were certainly there... would the course be long enough, accurate enough, well percieved?

Pre-race rambling...

Got back to the lodge, a quick hot shower and from then on it was just a blur of events after events... racers started arriving, checking in, and before I knew it it was 12pm and I had to be up at 4am to get the volunteers started. The pre-race night was a success though, Bruce cooked some great meals as usual and raers mostly chatted and/or watched the adventure race DVDs I had borrowed.

Volunteers Kean Williams and Jessica Lundin in action

Morning of was hectic but went very well, Volunteers were in place thanks to Aaron and Matt who have a knack for being on the ball, and people like Vivian and many others that are so good at this volunteering thing... its amazing how much easier it is with good volunteers.

Race started just a minute late, and people were on their way! 29 teams (76 people) registered and 28 showed up since Tyler Patterson broke his hand two nights before, and the mad stampede of overly eager adventure racers barreling down the icy road from the Hyak Lodge was almost comic to watch. Once gone, I had a few minutes to relax before the madness of who which what continued.

Don Brooks slams back another one in the hopes of not having to do penalty laps

Overall it went really well though and DART won in a superior fashion before MOMAR. Not all teams made it, in fact several never even got to CP5 (out of 20) due to the sometimes a bit difficult navigation, but everyone was in very good spirits about it, after all finishing a hard course gives one a greater sense of satisfaction. The final part, a special event "biathlon" where people had to throw snowballs at coke cans and if they missed run/skate extra laps was very well received (except for the few poor ones that had to run all six laps... !).

Winning Team: DART-nuun

Team Snowblind, happy to be done...

Overall a total success, got us thirsty to do another one or two....

H.U.R.T Hurt!

Any race that is called HURT probably is trying to do a pun to pain.. HURT is no different...
H.U.R.T stands for Hawaiian Ultra Running Team 100 Miler.... auguably the toughest 100 miler in the US (not counting Barkley since you need to get "chosen" to race)... its a 100 miler with 99% singletrack, 24'000 feet of elevation gain and loss (the latter hurts more than the former) and very, very gnarly trails... washed out riverbeds, roots as far as your eyes can see..
So I decided to do it! CCC100 went well, and its up or out, always!

I cant necessarily say I had a lot of fun training for it this winter... doing double Mt. Si's in snow storms only mimic the drastic elevation changes not the weather there, and the rain, rain, constant rain throughout the winter got to me over time.. but I prepared for it well, and felt I was ready to roll.... in any event if it did not go well Yumay came along and we were going to go out to Kauaii to hang out for a week so the trip was already a success to start with. My buddy Matt Hart was there along with Krissy Moehl, having some other Washingtonians there was great, and my plan was to not run as fast as them as that would mean I am going too fast!


Steadily uphill.....

I started off rather fast-paced on the first of the five 20 mile loops, finding myself to be running with Krissy Moehl (who would eventually finish 2nd place overall!) and then even passed her and was about 20 minutes ahead of her after lap 1.... not the smartest thing to do knowing that she is a much stronger runner than me... oh well, I listened to my body who told me I was feeling phantastic....


Popping blisters, FUN!!

Second loop I started to slow down, naturally, and being passed by some people, not freaking out about it, I was running my own race, and actually was running by myself for about 80% of the fist 60 miles, when Yumay would jump in and pace me to the finish... Matt was done by then, runing the 100k version.


Mile 50... hot, hot, hot...

After mile 60 I found out I was in 5th place overall out of the about 100 people, NICE! I was feeling the constant heat over the day that started taking its toll, only feeling-wise though, speed wise I was still going really strong up the hills.... Yumay was with me and I felt like this was going to be one of my best races ever.... slip, slam, pop!
Slipped in the middle of the night, very sleepy, on a root, fell into the bamboo forest and sprained my ankle!!! Darn, so close... spend 2h trying to continue but I was down to a crawl and at mile 72 I had to pull out... fortunately I was past the 62mile mark so when that happens and one does not finish the 100 miler they automatically qualify for the 100k time... which I ended up 5th in and got a buckle as well.... no harm done, I ll do this race again in a few years... !!