It’s always hard to leave the mountains behind in the
summertime, but at least this year I know I’m planning to return a couple more
times. Of course, those are for the
purpose of running ultras, so it isn’t really the rest and relaxation that I
love so much about our family’s annual trip to the Sierras - but I suppose that’s
nothing to legitimately complain about.
On a similar theme, this weekend’s Random Shot of Beauty was
a coin flip between two shots from the past week, so I decided to just post
them both. The first one was taken earlier
in the week:
A shot from a small island in the middle of Lake Alpine,
where my 11-year-old daughter and I parked our kayaks in order to indulge in one of our
favorite mountain activities: finding the biggest rock we can jump from, and repeatedly
plunging ourselves into the cold water.
The second was taken more recently:
The Stanislaus River at nightfall, as seen during a
riverside picnic on our last evening in the mountains.
I didn’t do very much structured training during the trip,
but with Leadville a mere 5 weeks away, it’s time to get back to business –
which is why I’ll begrudgingly set the alarm early tomorrow. And I know the mountains will be waiting for
me to return.
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*Admin note: a standard review follows below, along with an
announcement from Merrell and a product review update afterward.
**
One of our family’s annual springtime traditions is to order
the kids their summer sandals. With the
prospect of hot days, lot of outdoor activity, and frequent trips to the lake, river, or beach
on tap, they need something that can handle a wide variety of uses as well as repeated trips in and out of the water.
In previous years we typically get them Tevas or Land’s End
water sandals, but I often find myself wishing there was something more in line
with the barefoot ideal. It seemed crazy
that the vast majority of sandals still had built-up heels and thick midsole
cushioning – which was why I was very happy to get a look at Merrell’s Summer
2012 footwear catalog.
Merrell Barefoot Hylidae Wrap sandal, Drizzle color
More specifically, my daughter has been wearing the Merrell Barefoot Hylidae Wrap sandal for about a month now, which is part of the
“Water” subcategory of the company’s extensive Barefoot line. The male equivalent is the Aqua Wrap, which
in my opinion isn’t nearly as colorful a name as Hylidae, which is the
scientific name for a Family of tree frogs – many of which, like the sandals
themselves, are semi-aquatic.
Like any good tree frog, the Hylidae Wrap is also very
brightly colored – at least, my daughter’s version (known as Drizzle) is, with
a color scheme that’s right in her pre-teen wheelhouse. You can also get them in silver or black,
but no one wants to see a black tree frog, right? For a summertime water shoe, the brighter,
the better – at least in my daughter’s opinion.
Obviously there are a lot of reasons why I approve of the
shoe also. There’s a mere 4mm
compression molded insole for basic comfort while maintaining outstanding
ground feel. It’s a completely flat, flexible platform with no drop from heel to toe.
At a mere 5.2 oz, it’s very lightweight, and the upper is open enough to
allow full freedom of movement of the foot during any activity. And if you happen to insist on vegan
footwear, the Hylidae Wrap is a safe choice in that regard as well.
The upper has drawn my daughter a lot of attention because
of its styling. There’s something about
the criss-crossing of nylon straps and synthetic leather along with the
contrasting color that catches the eye; I stopped counting the number of times
people spontaneously told my daughter how much they like her shoes – and for an
11-year-old girl, that’s a pretty cool thing to happen.
Two of the straps are Velcro closures, so there’s a lot of
adjustability for individual preferences.
All of the synthetic leather surfaces have a thin neoprene lining for
additional comfort, along with an antimicrobial coating to manage odor control. My daughter wears these as all-day shoes and
hasn’t had any problems with discomfort.
Antimicrobial coating is also used on the EVA footbed, which
is contoured to slightly cradle the foot and keep it secure inside the upper.
Of course, tree frogs are known for their sticky grip, and
the Hylidae does a great job of mimicking that characteristic with a high performance
rubber outsole. The only odd thing about
the outsole rubber is Vibram’s name for it: they call it the Gecko Glove outsole,
a reptilian moniker that doesn’t jive with the amphibian theme of the shoe. But maybe that’s just me being picky.
For practical purposes, the Vibram outsole provides great
traction on nearly every possible surface.
There are 2mm lugs to help grip in loose gravel, and the rubber compound
holds on pretty effectively on wet rocks.
The outsole is also non-marking, in case your daughter wants to wear
them to gym class when fall rolls around.
Thanks to its ability to combine high performance aquatic
function with barefoot friendly construction, Merrell’s Barefoot Hylidae Wrap
is probably one of the best developments of summer for both my daughter and
me. It retails for $85 from Amazon.com.
1) This week the company launched a new promotional
campaign with a simple yet very noble goal: using its love of the outdoors as a
catalyst to build a community of athletes who exercise outside. They’re calling it The Pack, and there’s only
one rule: go outside and do something! A
promotional video follows below, which was especially timely for my family, in
that it prominently features stand up paddleboarding – an activity my family
and I have done a lot of this week.
Check out The Pack website here, and check out the promo video below:
“Welcome to the Pack” by Merrell (click to play):
2) As for my family’s outdoor activity: it’s been a week of
hiking, biking, kayaking, fishing, running (a little bit), paddleboarding, and
generally playing around in the great outdoors – and pretty much everyone in my
family has been doing it in Merrell shoes. My wife and son brought a single pair of shoes
each: Trail Gloves for my son, and Pace Gloves for my wife. One of my daughters is using the Dash Gloves,
and the other is wearing the Hylidae sandals reviewed above. (Since I’m the resident shoe diva, I brought
multiple pairs to use.)
L to R: Pace Gloves, Trail Gloves, Hylidae sandals, Dash Gloves
The point here is that everybody’s shoes have proven
remarkably versatile in wet and dry conditions, and extremely durable,
especially considering that in some cases the shoes in question are more than
one year old. I’m often asked about what
single shoe I’d recommend if you can only buy one pair – and if you have a wide
variety of outdoor activities on tap, it’s hard to do better than Merrells.
-Cage the Elephant, “Shake Me Down” (video after post)
The buildup to a 100-mile run can be a strange process. If you’re anything like me, the main event
burns like a bright hot sun on your race calendar, eclipsing everything else in
its vicinity.
There’s a physiological aspect to this phenomenon, as each
tune-up event builds the strength and stamina that will be needed for the
eventual 100-miler. However, there’s a
psychological component to the process as well; when a challenge as formidable
as Leadville looms on your horizon, it completely dominates your thoughts to an
extent that every single training run and practice race is defined solely by
the contribution it will make to your success on the big day (and night – and
in my case, the following day as well) of the target race.
While it’s perfectly understandable, sometimes I regret
carrying this mindset into races with me – because more often than not, the
events I’m participating in are fully deserving of their own moment in the
sun. In particular, Northern Californians
are blessed to have some of the most amazing trails and wonderful races anyone
can ask for, and it’s easy to feel like we live in the Mecca of ultrarunning. So
when I say that a new NorCal race has the makings of an instant classic, that’s
not a statement to take lightly – but last weekend’s Marin Ultra Challenge
definitely fits that description.
The race isn’t one to take lightly either - with nearly
11000’ of climbing, many runners considered it more difficult than The North Face 50 in this same region – but the course designed by Hydrapak’s Jim Vernon
offers a wonderful combination of new trails and classic Marin County
thoroughfares, over terrain that was generally runnable but often simply
grueling. I could tell you more … but
it’s probably easier if we just get to the report.
We’ll start with a theme that will recur throughout the
race: it was a very foggy day. Although the 6AM start time was technically
after sunrise, you couldn’t really tell that by looking across the start area
at Rodeo Beach.
The course doesn’t start out particularly dramatic, with
rolling fire roads and gradual climbs leading to the top of Coastal Trail
that overlooks the city from the Golden Gate Rec Area. Unfortunately …
… see the Golden Gate Bridge there? Or Alcatraz off to the left? Or the city skyline in the distance? Us either.
I felt bad for a couple of first-time runners I ran close to through
this section, knowing the killer views they were missing under the
blanket of fog.
After passing the views that weren’t viewable, we rolled
back down to the start/finish area where the first aid station awaited us at
mile 9.
From there it’s an old standby climb from Rodeo Beach, up
Coastal Trail and over Wolf Ridge before descending down into another aid
station at Tennessee Valley. There
really aren’t many different ways to get from Rodeo to Tennessee, so this route
is probably familiar to anyone who’s done other ultras based in one of the two
areas.
It wasn’t until leaving Tennessee Valley that the course
sprung some new challenges on us, beginning with a gentle climb up the Miwok
Trail that darts in and out of eucalyptus groves …
… and eventually leads to the Dias Ridge Trail, a very
pretty meandering single track that eventually deposits you at Muir Beach and
another aid station at mile 19.
Shortly after leaving Muir Beach, we encountered what must
be one of the craziest trails in all of Marin County: the Heather Cutoff. As far as climbs go, its numbers aren’t
particularly daunting; what makes it memorable are the multiple zigzagging switchbacks
that wander in every conceivable direction on the face of the hill. The trail is somewhat hard to appreciate from
the bottom …
… but looking back down from the top you get a better sense
of how convoluted the paths can be. Also
– see that little patch of blue stuff in the top left corner?
It was the sky! It
was nearing midday by this point, and the sun finally burned through the fog
just in time for us to get some cool views of Mt Tamalpais as we ran along the
ridge line.
Another cool aspect of the race was visible here as well: at
a few different locations on the course we passed by photographers taking
pictures of the runners. Of course, that
in itself isn’t very unusual, and I figured that later in the week I’d receive
an e-mail with some blurry thumbnail photos and a solicitation to get the “real
photos” if I send in 30 dollars. What I
didn’t realize at the time is that Inside Trail Racing recruits their own team
of photographers to take photos and post them to the company’s Picasa page. They posted multiple pictures of
every runner, which are completely free and easy to download - and that kind of
tells you all you need to know about Inside Trail Racing’s love for the trail
running community.
As for the photo above: that’s me cresting the ridgeline
from the previous photo. I was especially
grateful for shots like this, since most of my self-photos from the day kinda
sucked.
Meanwhile, back at the race …
Remember the Dipsea Trail from my Miwok 100K report? The one with the beautiful redwoods and
steep staircase descents that leads to the town of Stinson Beach? They used that trail here as well. However …
… unlike at Miwok, you don’t actually go to the beach at the
Marin Ultra Challenge; instead, you try to gain your composure, and possibly
contemplate sitting down for lunch with the cycling club at Stinson Beach
Market – because the next part of the course is an absolute killer.
Over the next two miles, you’ll climb nearly 2000’ up the
Willow Camp Trail – an uphill slog that seems to go on forever. On the plus side, you finally get to see the
beach – on the minus, it’s much too far away to enjoy it.
This climb is virtually the same one that opened this year’s
Miwok 100K – but instead of doing it in the dark early morning at the start of
the race, we were doing it in the heat of midday with a full marathon already
on our legs. Despite my recent familiarity with the climb, this
one seemed harder the second time around – and sometimes it’s better to not see
what lies ahead of you.
Thankfully, after cresting the climb the course rewards you
with 6 miles of flat and downhill terrain, starting with the wide-open Coastal
Trail towards Pantoll Campground …
… and shady forests of the Old Mine Trail that lead to a
welcome aid station …
… as well as another race photographer! As you can see, I’m not exactly blasting at
full throttle here: by this point, my legs had become pretty weary, and I was
already in the “one foot in front of the other” mode I shift to towards the end
of most ultras – except in this case, I had almost 19 more miles to go.
This was kind of a low point for me, but there wasn’t any
particular crisis to speak of – I just generally felt sort of empty. So I munched on some Pop Tarts (yes, really - they're becoming one of my aid station favorites) while walking
the initial descent out of the aid station …
… and went super conservatively through the beautiful
redwoods of the Ben Johnson Trail. In
fact, I was moving so slowly …
… that when I reached the visitor center at Muir Woods
National Monument, it was probably hard to distinguish me from the hoards of tourists
making their leisurely strolls through the tall trees.
Fortunately, as often happens in ultras, a bit of time and
shade was all I needed to perk up again – and by the time we began the long
climb up the Fern Creek and Lost Trails within Muir Woods, I found a little
more bounce in my step.
At the top, you leave the shade behind on the appropriately
named Sun Trail that travels just below Panoramic Highway and connects you to
another section of the Dipsea Trail …
… where you give all of that elevation back before
crossing Redwood Creek at the bottom of Muir Woods again.
This section of the climb out of Muir Woods is
affectionately called “Dynamite” by Dipsea racers; it’s not the “Hey, this is
great, we’re having a blast here” meaning of the word … rather, it’s the “This
trail will almost certainly blow your legs up” connotation. There’s a difference.
And guess what awaits you after completing the Dipsea climb
and the following long descent? Another
killer climb, this time away from Muir Beach as you begin the classic route toward
Pirates Cove. Also notice that the fog
had started to roll back in …
… and by the time I finally made it to Pirate’s Cove, most
of the scenery was shrouded away again …
… leaving me with nothing but another steep climb as I made
my way back home.
From the top of Pirate’s Cove, it’s a long steady descent
into Tennessee Valley, where all the aid station volunteers tried to tell me I
looked good.
I suspected they were lying, but couldn’t really confirm it
until seeing one of ITR’s Picasa photos after the race. Truthfully, I probably looked like hell – but
with less than 5 miles to go, I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
Once I completed the final climb of the day, the fog was
back at full strength, just as it had been in the morning. Normally you can see Rodeo Beach in the
distance below this sign at the top of Wolf Ridge – today, not so much. I knew it was down there, though …
… and soon enough it materialized in front of me, about 11
and a half hours after I left it.
I’m not running fast race times anymore - more on this in a
separate post – but I was happy with my race management on this day. I only hit one really dark patch, and
otherwise was able to prevent all sorts of little issues from escalating into
major ones. It was something of a
pleasant surprise, in that part of me was expecting things to be a whole lot
worse (more on that later as well).
Another mild surprise was my footwear for the day; I
switched from my customary Soft Star Original RunAmocs to the RunAmoc Dash,
which I’m beginning to like more and more for the steep technical terrain that
is so prevalent at Northern California ultras.
All in all, I came away very impressed and satisfied with
the Marin Ultra Challenge: impressed that Race Director Tim Stahler and Inside Trail Racing managed to put together such an outstanding first-time event, and
satisfied that the pieces of my Leadville training might actually be falling
into place. And with that bright hot
100-miler looming on the horizon, this cloudy day in Marin was exactly the
thing I needed.
*
Cage the Elephant, “Shake Me Down” (click to play):
Hey … I’m a little overdue on a race report, aren’t I? Apologies if you’ve been awaiting my report from
the Marin Ultra Challenge; I’ll have it posted in the next couple of days for
sure. In the meantime, let’s take care
of one point of business: announcing the winner of the Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush book giveaway.
Before I do, though, thanks very much to everyone who
supplied a favorite marathon memory with their entry. If you have any question as to the historical
significance of the marathon race, scroll through the comments section of that
post for a small sampling of the colorful history of the event.
Having said that … Meg T, e-mail me your contact info – you’re
the winner! To everyone else, I’d definitely
recommend grabbing Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush from Amazon.com in either
hardback or Kindle formats.
*
As for the delayed race report … I’m chalking up my
delinquency to the fact that I’m currently living on mountain time, as our
family is enjoying another week in our favorite getaway spot in the Sierras. It’s always one of the most restful and
rewarding times of the year for us, and I’m always grateful for the opportunity
to be here.
Speaking of things to be thankful for, here’s your Random
Shot of Beauty:
God, country, and tall pine trees, as seen outside the
Mountain Christian Fellowship in Arnold, CA.
I’ve often made reference to the fact that for a very long
period of my running career, I was something of a marathon fanatic. I ran several races per year, routinely travelled
hundreds of miles to find new courses or revisit old favorites, and excitedly
watched every major marathon I could find on television.
I also absorbed every piece of information I could find
about the history of the event, which I considered nothing less than the most
epic and legendary race in the history of the world (I was a bit younger then,
and a bit more inclined to hyperbole).
Although I now have a different perspective on the race – it’s not
nearly as epic as I once imagined, but perhaps just as legendary – I’m still fascinated
by the marathon as an event, particularly in the details of its formative
years.
Accordingly, for the past couple of weeks I’ve been completely
geeking out over Showdown at Shepherd's Bush, a captivating history of the
marathon at the most critical time in its existence: the years immediately
before and after the 1908 London Olympics.
Most folks know the ancient Greek origins of the marathon; very few,
however, recognize how pivotal the London race was in cementing the marathon as
one of the preeminent athletic pinnacles and cultural touchstones of the 20th
Century.
The book is also the story of three remarkable runners whose
paths converged on that fateful day in London: Dorando Pietri, a determined and
hard-nosed Italian who almost literally ran himself to death in front of the
Queen and 80,000 spectators; Johnny Hayes, an opportunistic working-class Irish-American
who rose from an often tragic upbringing to achieve athletic immortality; and
Tom Longboat, an Onondaga Indian from Canada whose sheer athletic talent was
rivaled only by the severity of the persecution that followed him to every corner
of the globe.
Dorando Pietri at the 1908 Olympics; photo from Getty Images
Author David Davis culled literally hundreds of source
documents to create a vivid narrative (along with a cool collection of vintage photos) of the three runners in the years before
1908, and follows them throughout their post-Olympic notoriety. At the center of it all is an extended
account of the 1908 Olympic Marathon, which has to go down as one of the most
dramatic and controversial of all time. I won’t go into all the details here, but
suffice it to say if something similar took place today, it would cause a fair
amount of hysteria among Olympic aficionados or sports junkies.
Aside from putting some wind into my geek flag, another
pleasure of the book was its depictions of the training conditions and
prevailing exercise science wisdom of the day. Davis reports that before key events, “competitors
were given breakfast [of] milk and a couple of beers apiece”, and that during long
footraces, “If a runner was in extremis, he downed a shot of whiskey or
brandy.” Other anecdotes are
particularly amusing in light of the current natural running craze: Davis notes
that the “primitive, arduous” footwear the runners used were nothing more than a
leather upper and rubber outsole. He
doesn’t mention that today, modern minimalists shell out upwards of 100 bucks
for similarly primitive gear.
With another London Olympic marathon just around the corner,
the timing of this book is just about perfect.
If you’re a marathon geek like me, or if you simply enjoy the historical
intersections of athletics and sociology, Showdown
at Shepherd’s Bush makes for a very entertaining read. And for one of my readers, you’ll get a
chance to check out the whole story for free.
Showdown at Shepherd’s Bush retails for $17 from Amazon.com (or $13 in Kindle format), and the publisher has provided one copy for me to give away as a contest
prize. But since I’m celebrating my
inner geek in this review, I want to give my fellow running geeks out there an
edge of sorts in winning.
So here’s the deal: you get one contest entry for leaving
any old comment, one additional entry if you identify a memorable world-class marathon
moment (for example, German Silva turning the wrong way in NYC or Bob Kempanien puking Gatorade at the Olympic Trials – and no, you can’t use those), and a
third entry if that moment happened in an Olympic marathon (like Deena entering
the stadium in Athens – and that one’s now ineligible as well). Also, there’s no copying someone else’s
moment; if there are duplicate memories listed, I’m only giving credit to the
earliest entrant. As I said, the
advantage definitely goes to the geeks on this one.
Leave your comments in the box below to enter, and I’ll
announce the winner this Saturday, July 8.
Thanks very much to St Martin’s Press for sponsoring this contest, and
good luck to everybody!
Apologies for the late post - the weekend sort of got away from me. It probably has something to do with this weekend's RSOB:
Muir Beach in Marin County, as seen from the Dias Ridge Trail at approximately mile 18 of yesterday's Marin Ultra Challenge.
The top half of the shot isn't due to a blocked screen or film error; rather, it's the heavy fog cover that blanketed much of the course for the majority of the day. From a runner's standpoint, that's not such a terrible thing - but from a photographic perspective, it leaves a little something to be desired.
I think I gathered enough shots for a decent race report, though - which will hopefully post here later in the week. In the meantime, check back for an Olympic-themed giveaway contest in the next day or two.
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(or 
), and the publisher has provided one copy for me to give away as a contest
prize. But since I’m celebrating my
inner geek in this review, I want to give my fellow running geeks out there an
edge of sorts in winning. 
