It seems a little geographically/culturally limited as I could think of quite a few others that I'd put above those ones. According to a U.S. survey from last year, "whatever" topped the list in that country.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here (hmm.. is that overused..? .."go out on a limb"?) ...[and what kind of limb is it that i'm going out on ..? a tree limb? or an appendage ... like a leg or an arm or something ... should i really be saying "i'm gonna go out on an arm here..] .. i'd be just as apprehensive about going out on an arm as i would going out on a tree limb ... both seem pretty risky...
.. anyway .. so back to my train of thought ..(that could be overused too.. train of thought) .. but i'd like to add another phrase to the list of tedious and downright annoying phrases out there right now, and it seems to be "cropping up" all over the sports world "at this moment in time," especially the ultra world. That phrase is "SHOUT OUT"
Apparently a lot of people feel the need to "shout out" ...a lot! They shout out for people (as in "i'd like to give a big shout out for dumbass here!..."), products ("i'd like to give a shout out for.. oh, i don't know.. apples!), sponsors, fans, weather, girlfriends, hamsters, ... you name it and people seem to be "shouting out" for it.
With all this shouting it's gotten awfully noisy! "Absolutely" it has. And "at the end of the day," "I personally," "at this moment in time," "with all due respect," think "it's a nightmare!" I mean "like," "whatever!" it's like this shouting out has become "24/7" and "I for one" think we need to exercise some moderation in its use. Surely there are other creative, less annoying and less noisy ways to do all this shouting ... "it's not rocket science!"
But for now i'd like to introduce an old, "time-honoured" and to-the-point phrase for all you "hipsters" and "gangstas" out there who are for ever "shouting out" for everything and anything: ..."Shut up!!"
You sensitive folks who don't know me .. i'm all about the "tongue in cheek" .. although it's only half a tongue in cheek this time because, really, this phrase ranks right up there with "rockin' the" this, that or the other as one of the finger nails on blackboard phrases bouncing around the "blogosphere" right now... sheesh! And please ... don't "holla back, y'all!"
This quiet little unassuming race, tucked away on one of the San Juan islands, is the Medusa of ultras -- beautiful but lethal! Its steep climbs turn your legs to stone and the plummeting, never ending descents leave you wishing the rest of you would turn to stone so you could just roll down the hills.
Tom and Dr. Kevin picked me up at my school Friday afternoon and were lucky to escape with their lives after being mobbed by my unruly class who descended upon them with poking fingers, awkward questions and pinned them to the blackboards. (Lecture given Monday morning on how to make new adults feel welcome in the class...)
The weather this year was perfect ... sunny like last year but warmer and no snow. I didn't sleep too well (although apparently i was snoring at some point) but one of our cabin mates was thrashing around all night as though he was being eaten by a school of piranhas or something...
Last year i wore a pack to carry stuff. This year i decided to wear a bike jersey with pockets in the back that i could fill with grub and carry two bottles. Worked pretty well! Food is secure but easy to get at and the bottles can be filled fast.
At 830am we were off. The trails on this course are fantastic! Beautiful single track and really nice soft double track lined with vibrant green moss. Not very technical either. A real treat to run on.
The course has three big climbs and three big descents where you pretty much lose all you gained in the last climb. It's exasperating! You just wanna cry sometimes.
Anyway .. last year i didn't train much and also had a bit of an injury which took care of a two or three weeks and was still around a bit for the race .... so my time was around 7 hours. I enjoyed it more though i think... going slower : )
This year i trained more and smarter (although still not as diligent as i could have been) and i hoped to come in around 5:30 and beat Tom of course. Hmmm.....
I lost sight of him about 10 minutes in and ran for another 30 minutes or so without seeing him anywhere ahead of me. This had me cursing at myself that i couldn't be that much slower - heck i'd pretty much done the same training! Where the hell was he?! I pressed the pace a bit but tried to remind myself of the hours ahead of me. Then finally ... contact! I saw him going up a trail toward the top of mt pickett. I don't think he saw me and i tucked in behind trees and got out of sight but pressed a bit more to close the gap ... he was maybe 200m ahead. Doesn't sound like much but OMG!! is it ever hard to close it! I would round a corner after the trail levelled off thinking i'd see him ... but gone! poof! What?! Then i'd see him again .. almost at the top of mt pickett now and i was maybe 150m behind.
We descended the long winding double track down mt pickett. Tom always either out of sight or briefly in sight on a switch back below me .... each little maddening glimpse causing me to accelerate a bit. Then he disappeared as we neared the first aide station. But as i turned a sharp corner i saw him about 80metres ahead of me ..... walking! Haul in on the reel while i get the bat ready to beat him over the head with when i pass him! But then when i got to the spot where i thought for sure he'd be within clubbing distance i see him disappearing down the trail in the forest ahead! God damn it! I knew this pressing the pace to close was going to cost me later on but i wanted to catch up. As we started to drop into the first aide station i saw him below me again and he saw me out of the corner of his eye at which point the gig was up and i yelled "ooooooh yeaaah!!' to let him know i was right there.
At the first aide station Tom had filled his bottles and was on his way out as i came in. I wondered if he'd stop and wait ... but no .. he took off ... gloves are off when it's a race. I filled my bottles quickly, grabbed some grub and went after him as he disappeared off the end of an open field 150m away. I don't know if it was right to push at this point or how much it would cost me later but i wanted to catch up. I saw him look back as he went into another trail ... this time only 50m ahead and i knew he was thinking "damn!!" and started to push a bit himself.
The powerline was coming up. A one mile climb pretty much straight up that you pretty much have to power hike. I really wanted to catch Tom on this climb and felt the burn in the legs but i also felt pretty strong and i put some effort into closing a maddeningly small but persistent gap. I could see him checking back and knew he was a little worried and pushing hard himself now.
But as i crested the top of the climb i looked and the gap had blown open. i couldn't see him and i knew there was a long descent coming and that he was better at those than me. Going into that descent i kept looking as far ahead as i could see ... but nothing. Same for the loop of the lake where some of the leaders were running back against the grain .. wrong direction. I maintained a decent turnover around the lake but was feeling the ache and it was a little disheartening to have lost contact with the Creakster ahead of me.
I hoped to catch sight of him on the big climb up mt constitution but i couldn't see him. The first half of the climb is punishingly steep and my calf muscles and achilles tendons were screaming. The second half levels off a bit and you can run some good sections and see out over the ocean to mt baker and the snowy coastal peaks. The sun felt warm and my spirits were raised a bit by the views and the sun and the prospect of food and coke at the summit aide station. I reached the top and left (after a sandwich, some coke..and a few more pins in the tom craik voodoo doll... use silver pins next time ) at around 4hrs:07. Tom had left about 7 minutes earlier... not that i knew at that point. But a 2 minute gap had now become 7.
It only got worse though. The trail drops steeply off the summit and i ran gingerly down and then ascended quite well back to the powerline and crossed it to begin the pounding descent to the lake and the last mile or two. Again i was painfully slow going down the steep trail and only managed to find some speed and turnover for the last loop of the lake to the finish. 5hrs:40. The 2 then 7 minute gap had turned into 22 minutes! Tom had blasted the downhills and everything else in the last 12 miles to give the old jedi a butt kicking.
He is a more dedicated and whole (nutrition, recovery, stretching, strategy) runner than i am (i like my donuts, sticky buns and chips too much) and this dedication compounds the time he beats me by the longer the race gets. He has earned his victories and continues to make inroads against some of our community's better known runners. Look out! If you see a guy behind you with chocolate all over his face and a witty line in both holsters ... it's likely him! He never forgets a face or a name ... and you'd be wise not to forget his..
Meanwhile ... i'll try to give him a race over the shorter distances where i can hang on better ... up to 30k.
Blog or die! But if i have nuthin' to say it's a little hard to justify putting something up. So i'll compromise and keep this short.
Christmas was spent in the Seattle area with family and gave me a chance to get out on some different trails. Even though they look much like our trails in North Vancouver (rainforest etc) .. it's still somewhere else and somewhere new. The trails are a little more groomed and less technical which makes it nice for zooming along. I was pretty impressed with their network of trails in urban areas and it's easy enough to join them up for a 2 hour run.
They have some amazing parks and sports fields that, as a teacher, i would love to have access to with a class. I'd be out there all the time and yet as i run by they sit empty!! Kids safely locked away in their houses glued to their new electronic devices. Ever noticed lately how if you plunk a group of kids on a field and tell them to go play they will stand around talking for 20 minutes and then come to you saying they're bored and want to go home? I'm sure if you're from my generation you don't need to be told that those sports fields and parks would be full of kids playing unstructured games all year round. I'm truly scared about what's going to happen in North America when these kids start developing diseases at younger and younger ages and start passing on their own life habits to their kids.
Anyway ... off the lecture podium and onto the Resolution 8k cross-country run this morning at Crescent Park in White Rock. No celebrating the change over from December to January for me (I mean about 2 billion other people in the world don't believe in it or celebrate a different day. I just don't get it). Even so, I woke up and slowly, slowly .. it began to dawn on me that there was a bit of light in my room .. enough to see objects and their colours. This could only mean one thing to my highly trained internal clock.... I was late! Hopped out of bed and phoned Craiky to relay the delay. Rush around and get ready. Pick up Craiky and head off hoping there's a coffee shop open.
Then off to Crescent Park. Really nice park with forest and big open spaces and nice groomed and semi-groomed trails criss-crossing it and, by north shore standards relatively flat.
The race was put on by Peninsula Runners and their series, The Campbell Valley Trail Series, is attended by mostly fast roadies and track/club runners. Great tempo training. I'll get my sandbagging done here -- Craiky and I had run 3hrs on Wed and 1 hr yesterday and then off to this thing so we were a little tired.
Up to this point it was 2-1 to me in our little competition between me and Craiky in the cross-country races. I had managed to burn him off on a beautiful sunny day at the Jericho 10k in December. As I said in my last post .. it's amazing what the promise of coffee and a sticky bun at Grounds for Coffee can do to motivate me =D
Today we were a little surprised to see such a big turn out. Looked like at least 150 runners and White Rock's newest resident, Ward Beemer among them!
The starter said "go" .. i think .. and i took off. About 50 metres in i heard Ward's voice behind me: Ward: "where's he going?!" Craiky: "that's how he runs.."
So I knew i was in front as we zoomed around a wide path and funneled into some fun single track through the woods. I zipped and swooped down the trail passing less sure-footed roadies and banked back onto a wider gravel/needle path, leaning into a little climb. Looking up I saw 20metres ahead of me a rather nice bum and the tanned calves of a cute girl fresh back from Mexico. As I was admiring her I noticed on her left a runner in black capri running tights and a familiar gait....
Doh!! What the #%$#%@ !!!?!!! How?!! Oooooooooo ... what?where... how? ... Bewildered and frustrated I closed the 20 metres in less than a minute and pulled up alongside Craiky.
"How'd the hell you get in front of me?!!!!!!!!! How'd you do that?! There's no way you passed me on that single track!!!"
Somehow that weasel had gotten by me at the start before we went into the single track and without me even noticing! The guy is a freakin magician!!! Kinda reminds me of this bugs bunny cartoon i watched as a kid.. there was no kissing involved though ...and no $10. =D
These races are great. I mean I like the long stuff but you don't really get the lungs going on those unless there's a big climb. But in these your lungs and heart are in overdrive the whole time, just on the edge between staying on the pace and being on your face in the dirt callin' a cab.
We both came through the first 4k loop in the 16minute area with craiky about 25 seconds ahead and he managed to keep that gap for the second lap too although i managed to pass the 3 people between me and him so that i finished 1 place behind him.
So now we're at 2-2 and neither of us really wants to go for a tie-breaker cuz it'll be piano wire and razor blades the whole way!
Another reason i liked this race was because they had pizza at the end! Really tasty and still fresh and hot in their little cardboard boxes! Then it was off to see Beemer's cool new place and eat bacon and french toast. That's my kinda new year's day!
No word on the results yet but craiky was 32:10 i believe, and i was 32:35 i think.
Ah! Got ya! You were expecting some crap about sticking inspirational quotes on your mirror, telling yourself you're a winner and that you have friends (they just have busy schedules), putting upbeat music on your iQuit and setting a goal to set more goals ...etc. Shut up - i know you were.
Anyway ... forget it. None of it works. Coffee and cinnamon buns are what i use and if you can't get out the door for a run in the morning with the lure of a sticky bun and the elixir of life to follow then you're a baboon. Just looking at these pictures makes me wanna throw some salomon products on my feet and head out.
So it was the Aldergrove ramble last week and if you read wing cmdr craik's blog you have a pretty good idea of how that went for me. Egg macmuffins usually make my mouth water in a good way but just a nibble of that cheese had me pointing craiky off the road lickitysplit and saving his car by mere seconds from being decorated with the contents of my stomach. C2H5OH is an evil evil molecule. Aldergrove was a rough 4 laps and there was no stopping craiky from giving me a beating. But i was glad that i still showed up and prevented the letters D, N and S from appearing after my name.
This weekend is the Gunner Shaw Memorial at Jericho. It's a 10k and the terrain is classic cross-country with undulating ground, forests, open areas, mud, water and a couple of stretches of sandy beach to heckle your resolve. Hopefully the weather remains sunny and crispy, frosty. My favourite. I'm gonna stay clear of the evil molecule and snooze early. Then it'll be time to go head to head with craikster and see who falls first (should be him if i let him lead out. Piano and cheese wire are my friends in the forests.....).
Just remember... all this wouldn't be possible without the motivational assistance of Cinny and Beany .... I'm the Lazy Trailrunner... I know these things....
Race is at 11am, Saturday. Join us for the leaf kicking ceremony (where i kick leaves in craiky's face) and after-wheezer refreshments.
Revenge is sweet. I got the weasel at last. After finishing behind wing cmdr craik for most of the year, except a 5peaks race (was there another?), i got him today!
Finish line 8k, 29min:37
(photo courtesy Tran Media Services)
Today was the Remembrance day 8k x-country race around Stanley park. I've been wanting to try these for a while and finally signed up. Good tempo training .... or something ... learning how to run when you're gassed from the get-go.
The rain/hail held off and after an odd start (Craik and another runner actually had to hold the start line string up and start us) we were off. A hundred or a bit less speedsters from the track clubs blasted off the line across the cricket field. Craik made a funny but nobody laughed except me n him ..... it's often that way.
Anyway ... i was hoping for about 35 mins considering it was trail and up and down, and i knew it was gonna be a wheezer. One of those all out speed things. It didn't disappoint and surprisingly i was feeling about as good as anyone can when maxing out heart, legs, lungs.
I had set off at a good clip that i thought i could maintain for a while and found myself near the front ... sweet! even better .... craiky was behind me .... although he does that a lot and then whizzes by me after a few minutes. But as we zoomed across the leafy fields and into the first loop of Beaver lake i was still in front .... and then i began to wonder .... "maybe i can stay in front today!" the other elf said "don't get cocky coo ... still a little under half way. I had some good wheels today though and felt pretty good (unusual) and i was maintaining a pretty good pace as we went into the first longish "hill" and then back down again. I hadn't looked behind me once to see if craiky was there ... and never did til the end..... but i was starting to think that i might get him ... and this was enough to keep me driving up the next steep climb) almost to the height of the top of the Causeway, before a quick descent back down to Beaver lake and back down the home stretch.
Rounding Beaver lake for the second time I could hear two people breathing on my shoulder .... one passed me ... a girl ... damn! As we crossed pipeline road and ran the trail back into the open field where the kids water play area is i sensed, rather than saw, that craiky had fallen back. I was beginning to tire myself at this point but knowing that i might finally get him spurred me to keep going.
Breaking out into the open again on the starting field behind Brockton Oval, the course does a 1km loop of the cricket pitches. 1k to go ... i gave it all i had .... passed some dude in front of me who had passed me earlier and cresting a rise about 200m from the finish i took a quick glance to my right ... couldn't see craiky and almost did a jig crossing the line in 29min:37 ... sub 30! Gigiddy!
I was trashed. Those things are all out! But finishing 8th (2nd in age group) and only about a minute back of the first woman, Rachel Ruus who had gone to the 10k Nationals this year, made me recover pretty quickly. :) Looking forward to the next two (Aldergrove and Jericho) although i know craiky is gonna be out there tying my shoelaces together. But for today at least i get to strut around and kick leaves at him. The old coot still has some fight left in him! :p
The last time i ran this trail i was in hell. I was ready to crawl under a rock and lick dirt off the underside. It was cold and rainy and my legs were placing calls to local cab companies. It was the Chuckanut 50k race -- prob the worst i've ever felt in a race with the exception of sections of Primal Quest in 2005 or was it 6?? Whatever .. the utah one.
But this last Sunday was puuurrrfect and the promise of coffee and a boo around REI in Bellingham was all the lazy trail runner needed to coax him off the couch.
I headed down with wing commander Tom of the Salomon Flt crew. We were chauffeured down in Ward Beemer's Lexus limo to the trail head ... which is at the 10k point of the actual chuckanut race and thankfully cuts out the tortuous flat section.
The middle 30k of Chucky is mostly on nice smooth single track as it winds up and down and around Chuckanut ridge.
Ok, you're saying, then what the heck is that huge road in the picture up there?! That ain't single track! Your powers of observation are astounding, Holmes! It is indeed a dirt road and it's a bit of a doozy, winding 5km uphill about an hour into the run. Sucks in a race but on Sunday, in the sun and with the fall leaves and a bunch of friends, it was delicious.
At the top of the road you re-enter the atmosphere ... wait a minute ... i mean the single track and zoom along a rolling, wet, slippery, rooty ridge with a 150ft cliff on your right.
The pace ramped up pretty quickly and a small peloton broke off and started speeding down the trail. Me, Wing Cmdr Tom, Stefan and Pricey hurtled along in single file, bouncing and darting among the trees, roots, rocks and leaves for a sustained and leg burning 15 minutes. However, about 10 minutes in we dropped Pricey who went down like a sack of hammers on a root that I had placed there the night before for precisely this objective. I had also been out with a jar of vaseline lubing up roots and rocks. The lazy trail runner needs every advantage he can get afterall ... even on a fun run....
The remaining three surged on for another 5 minutes, heckling our weaker pack member. The hyenas would deal with him later. By the time the rest of the group caught up we were shivering a little and ready to get going again albeit at a slower pace .... we'd had enough of the zooming lark.
On the back side of Chucky some of us came across porky porcupine. Porky climbed a tree to avoid the neon runners while Katie disappeared up the trail at a noticeably quicker pace, worried that Porky could shoot his spines like a Scud missile battery =D .... we were just kidding Katie! Come back! =D
The rest of the run was pleasant but uneventful, except for Pricey going down again on a vaselined rock and spraining his ankle. A little tennis ball soon appeared and he hobbled off back to the car while the rest of us ascended K2 ... i mean Chinscraper ... a nice wheezer of a hill before pounding back down road and trails to the cars, a change of clothes and a trip to REI .... well.....
First we had to deal with Katie. She rolled down from Vancouver on an essentially flat tire and was going to head to the Chevron to put some air in it only her car wouldn't start! =D Luckily it's a manual and we push-started it a couple of times but it cut out. Off went Darin, Brooke and Stefan to buy some jumper cables while the rest of us stood around and got chilly and made VW jokes ... Back came the white knights and jump started the car and we were back in business and off to REI and some food.
Thanks to everyone for coming out and making a great day of it. We had a lot of laughs ... ok ... mostly me and Tom had a lot of laughs and other people looked at us wondering who had invited these 5 year old clowns .. =D If you get a chance to go down to Chucky on a nice day I highly recommend it.
Until my next posting... i toast your couches and spit in your eye,
The lazy trail runner.
Gear for the day: My banana yellow Salomon XA Pros. Fantastic for technical running and longer training runs.
