Training Log Archive: Bash

Drive home from PA. Lots and lots and lots of coffee.

Oil Creek 100K trail race
Motto: "Strike oil or move on!"

Run in the valley where the world's first oil boom began in 1859 when 'Colonel' Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well. This is how John D Rockefeller amassed much of his fortune.

I'm recommending this event up front. I've done seven trail ultras now (holy crap, how did that happen?) and would recommend them all. I'm sure there are ultra duds out there but I haven't stumbled on one yet. Each ultra has a distinct character with different highlights and advantages.

Oil Creek is super well-organized. All my ultras have had great aid stations but Oil Creek dials it up a notch. I didn't check out the full spread but each aid station had very helpful volunteers with coffee, soup, a variety of sandwiches, fresh fruit, other hot food (e.g. pizza, grilled cheese, mac & cheese, potatoes) and chocolate covered espresso beans in addition to the usual drinks and sweet/salty snacks. The course was well-marked with lots of feel-good markers even though most of the route followed a continuous hiking trail with yellow-blazed trees. Each marker had reflective tape so at night I could see a series of little white lights showing the trail ahead winding up and down hills, even though the terrain wasn't visible.

The trail itself is interesting and moderately technical. I've read race reports that describe it as highly technical but compared to some rocky sections of the Bruce Trail, most of it is runnable. The elevation gain/loss per kilometer is a little more than Hockley Valley so the feeling of constant up/down is similar. This weekend the trail was leaf-covered with lots of rocks and roots so I couldn't gaze at the scenery but it was fine if I watched where I put my feet. We mostly ran through mature, hilly deciduous forest with occasional views of autumn colours in the main valley.




Photo by Dennis Kavish (Osteo)

The race starts in Titusville, PA and runs southwest along the west side of the valley in Oil Creek State Park before descending and crossing a bridge over Oil Creek. There's an aid station at that point, a little less than halfway around the 50 km loop. That's the only place other than the start/finish where spectators and crew are permitted, and runners can send a drop bag there. Then the trail heads uphill and runs northeast along the east side of the valley back to Titusville Middle School where runners either cross the finish line or visit an aid station and head out to do it all again.

There are 50K, 100K and 100-mile courses. Registration opens in mid-March, and the shorter distances were sold out in 10 minutes (50K) and 1 hr 45 min (100K). Tim Grant (Tiny) and I got into the 100K event. Unfortunately for Cathy Gallagher (Mrs. Gally), she visited the website two hours after registration opened and ended up registered for her first 100-miler without intending to. Denise Rispolie (Dee) came along to support us all and pace Mrs. Gally on her final 60 km. Dennis Kavish (Osteo) was out there too, knocking his first 50K race out of the park, but we didn't see him. He graciously agreed to let me use some of his terrific photos in my report.


Photo by Christine Kavish

The weather forecast was "a little of everything", kicking things off with a frosty -3C at the start line. Mrs. Gally started at 5 a.m., Tiny and I started at 6 a.m., and the 50K runners slept in for a 7 a.m. start. There was mixed sun and cloud all day as the weather got warmer, then sporadic rain and wind gusts after dark. It rained heavily in the wee hours when Mrs. Gally and Dee were out, then by Sunday afternoon, it was sunny and almost 20C.



I had some trouble getting my mind and body into this race. I'd registered for it as a back-up plan to earn UTMB points in case I DNF'ed one of my other ultras - but since I didn't, Oil Creek was now just for fun. I'm still kind of new to the idea of doing a 100 km race just for fun. I like having some goal to motivate me and keep me focused. Although it wasn't a particular goal of mine, Ang had pointed out that a finish under 15 hours would qualify me for the Western States 100 lottery. However, in previous Oil Creek 100K races, only the top three women had finished under 15 hours so that was unrealistic. Mind you, I couldn't figure out *why* the times were so long on this course because 15 hours should be just in the ballpark for me for 100K with 3300 m of elevation gain, but there had to be a reason. Even the day before the race, I wasn't feeling inspired, and that's not good before a solo race of that length. I think part of my usual motivation had gone to Georgia with Richard. I would have liked to be there to support him at his first 50-miler, and it felt weird to head off in a completely different direction.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

The one idea I'd considered was to try pushing outside my comfort zone for the entire race and take the risk of a DNF in exchange for the learning experience. I'm not much of a runner but I'm good at pacing myself to a finish; what would happen if I went a little harder and tried to "race" for 100K? I'd had a taste of it in the first 60K of the Canadian Death Race when I had to rush to hit a cut-off, and it stressed me out. But I didn't blow up, and I was still running OK at the end. At Oil Creek, I'd have to start the race and make the call based on how I felt. It took about an hour to warm up, then I decided to go for it.

I ran much of the first section in the dark while chatting with Lesa Snider of Pickering, who eventually placed 3rd female. Over a kilometer of trail around Aid Station #1 at the 11K mark was set up like a Trek or Treat race with skeletons and monsters hanging in the trees, funny signs and tombstones with "punny" inscriptions.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

It was getting light but was still very cold. I grabbed a strawberry, thanked the volunteers and started up "Switchback Mountain". With the Death Race fresh in my mind, the hills at Oil Creek with signs like "Never Ending Climb" were quite manageable - just long enough to eat and drink while walking, then I'd start running again at the top. A lot of the hills had moderate slopes, and Dee had encouraged me to run as many easy uphills as I could. Somewhere around 15-17 km, I started passing the slowest of the 100-mile racers who had started an hour earlier.


Photo by Lee Ann Reiners

At 22 km, I met Dee at the "halfway" aid station, and she was awesome, filling my bladder while I dumped my headlamp, refilled my food and adjusted my layers. It was great to see Kristen Harrison (Mrs. Tiny) and Aubrey (Teeny Tiny) there.




Photo by Christine Kavish

I learned that Mrs. Gally was quite cold and that Tiny was in a lot of pain from a recent groin injury and was not certain he would finish. But they had both forged on ahead.


Photo by Lee Ann Reiners

I was offered a hot, gooey grilled cheese sandwich by the volunteers which I took with me as I headed back to the trail. How did they know exactly what I needed?


Photo by Christine Kavish

The next 28 km had one full aid station and a few unstaffed water-only stations. A Boy Scout troop was camping at one station and had posted a bunch of funny and inspirational signs along the trail for us. E.g. "Does your girlfriend know where you are?" A few trees later: "Does your wife know about your girlfriend?" And finally: "They're both waiting at the finish line for you!" Etc. Here was my favourite.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

Some of the top 50K runners flew past me in this section. I kept reminding myself to improve my posture - to think about tilting my hips forward, straightening my spine and neck, leaning forward from the ankles and kicking back toward my bum. This isn't how I naturally run but it really helps. Note to self: Do more planks over the winter. I took another grilled cheese sandwich from Aid Station #3 and ate it as I climbed the hill. Who knew that grilled cheese was ambrosia? In between aid stations, I ate my own Honey Stinger energy chews and drank a couple of Boosts to get quick calorie hits. A lot of ultrarunning is about getting food and drink down.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

We were reminded occasionally of the history of the area when small oil pipes crossed the trail.


Photo by Dennis Kavish

The last 2-3 kilometers of Loop #1 were on a paved bike path and roads leading back to the school - ouch, ouch, ouch! Dee had my drop bag ready. She refilled my bladder while I prepared food and gear for the next stage and got updates from Mrs. Tiny.


Photo by Denise Rispolie (Dee)

The first 50 km loop had taken 7 hours, and I had pushed out of my comfort zone on purpose so I knew the second loop would be slower. Alas, the 15-hour limit for Western States was not out of reach yet so I was going to have to keep working hard. I'd promised myself that if I took over 7 hours on Loop 1, I would put that silly idea out of my head but I was right on the borderline. (Arggh!)

I started Loop #2 with yet another grilled cheese sandwich in hand. On the trail about 4 km from the school, a runner approached. She had somehow missed the turn to the school at the end of her first loop, and now she was heading all the way back. Poor woman. I'd done this section in the dark the first time so it was nice to see it. It had seemed more technical in the dark than it actually was, and I'd also been in a conga line watching other people's feet most of the time. I looked at my Garmin and thought happily, "Yay, I only have 42.2 km left." And then I laughed out loud at how skewed my perspective has become.

I hadn't taken any photos yet so I pulled out my iPhone a couple of times and took three photos. I thought, "Wouldn't it be ironic if these two minutes spent on photography ended up making any difference in such a long race?" Hahahaha. At least I didn't send over 20 texts, take 20 photos and update my Facebook status twice, as I did in my first 50-miler.



In my first 50K race two years ago, I was concerned at how sore my IT bands were, starting at the edge of my hips and radiating down the outside of my legs toward my knees. In my first mountain race, I suffered from painful quads. In this spring's Sulphur Springs 50K, I was bothered by piriformis pain behind both my hips caused by poor posture. By the time the Death Race rolled around, those problems were largely gone but today a brand new pain appeared on top of my gimpy left foot. Dr. Mueller (Leanimal) says it sounds like the inferior extensor retinaculum. I could tell that the inflammation resulted from modifying my running form to accommodate my injury, and it eased up when I forced my foot to move properly - although I wasn't always able to do that. The pain plagued me until the end of the race (and is still plaguing me now).

When I hit Aid Station #1 for the second time, I got adventurous and had a piece of salted baked potato and some restaurant-quality potato and carrot soup. I still took some grilled cheese for the hill climb - no sense messing around when you've discovered a salty, high-calorie food that still tastes delicious as it goes down. By now, I was passing 100-milers on a regular basis, many of them hiking. Ultrarunners are a friendly crowd, and they often said something nice like "You're moving well". And since I didn't want them to feel bad, I would smile and say apologetically that I'm *only* running 100 measly kilometers, and they would nod knowingly (and maybe a little enviously!) as they chuckled about how far they still had to go.

I got to Aid Station #2 at 72 km, and Dee had everything ready for me again. It would be dark in 2 hours so I packed my lights and layers and grabbed some macaroni and cheese from the aid station - yum. I often feel a little spaced out on these long runs so I left the aid station with coffee and tried to drink it as I speed-hiked up a hill. It was sloppy but I felt my brain kick into gear soon afterward; I should probably use caffeine more often in long races that don't go overnight.


Photo by Dennis Kavish
Note: This is the trail - not a view from the trail.

When I passed friendly racers in the next section, a few of them responded to my apologetic comment saying, "Well, we're only running 100K too." Oh. So maybe I wasn't doing too terribly. I really had no idea since I'd started well back in the pack and I'd assumed that everyone I passed was a 100-miler. Shortly before Aid Station #3, I turned on my new BashBlaster light that 'Bent built for me. Even on level 3 of 5, it was bright enough to scorch leaves off the trees. Nice! I put on a light toque but didn't add any other layers, and that ended up being sufficient for the rest of the race, even through some rain showers and wind gusts. I grabbed Ramen soup and another half grilled cheese sandwich and guzzled it as I climbed out of the aid station.

Only 14 km to go and - damn it - there was still a slight possibility of breaking 15 hours so I couldn't relax. Headphones were discouraged so I started playing tunes through my iPhone speakers. It was dark and I was mostly alone so it was my "bear bell". I was running pretty well on the final kilometers of trail. As I approached town, the odds of the 15-hour finish got lower but the possibility was still there since the last part of the run is flat, and maybe my GPS distance on forested single track wasn't 100% accurate. As I started the Drake Museum loop - a grassy detour before the bike path - two men flew past me, probably aiming for Western States, and they made it by 2 minutes. I was thinking: how the heck could two strong runners like that be behind me for the first 97 kilometers? Do they enjoy sprint finishes?

I willed my legs to turn over faster on the final kilometers of pavement but it wasn't quite enough. I was around the corner from the school when my GPS said 15 hours, and by then, there was no point letting up so I kept running and crossed the line at 15:01:32 (gun time). And then I laughed and rolled my eyes at myself. The truth is, I'd be nuts to do Western States next June as my first 100-miler, even if I succeeded in the heavily subscribed lottery. The best way to qualify for WS100 is by finishing a 100-mile qualifier race, and the only time requirement is that I'd need to finish before the cut-off. It was just the principle of the thing...

After considering dropping out of the 100K early with his groin injury, Tiny roared back up in the pack on the second loop, finishing 13th overall of 85 starters in 12:51. After his strong, consistent performance at the Toad 50K two weeks ago, it was nice to see his preparation pay off even though he wasn't 100% today. About 25% of runners failed to finish the 100K.

I was 21st overall and - to my shock - 4th of 22 women and 1st masters. So it was an interesting experiment in my approach to ultras. There is always ebb and flow in these long races but my last 10K was the same pace as my first 10K so even though I went harder than I felt comfortable doing, I didn't empty the tank. I'd aimed to have a positive split but 7 hrs/8 hrs wasn't too ridiculous. (Not like my only road marathon - 2:00/2:49!) It's more fun to do an ultra without time pressure but if necessary, I can increase the effort a little. Maybe this will open up some ultras with time cut-offs that had previously seemed out of reach.

After picking up my very first belt buckle - the traditional ultra finisher prize - I stumbled around and chatted with a few Ontarians who were hanging around the school cafeteria. I was very, very tired and completely ineffective but now I was on duty. Mrs. Gally and Dee would be on the trail overnight so it was my job to get some sleep so I could pick them up at the finish and drive us all back home to Ontario.

I found where Dee had parked Mrs. Gally's van, somehow drove back to the hotel and took a ridiculous amount of time to change, shower and get to bed. If you've ever been truly exhausted, you will know what I mean. "Okaaaay, I've removed *that* shoe and sock. Now I need to, to...um? Oh yes, remove the *other* shoe and sock - zzzzz - whoops! Where was I?" Note the Bashblaster headlamp in this pic, which I'd inexplicably continued wearing for the past hour since I finished racing.



Of course I couldn't sleep, and I needed to get back to Race HQ around 4:30 a.m. Dee texted me updates when they got cell signal. They were moving slowly so I could stay in bed longer.


Photo by Denise Rispolie

I tried to feel sad about that for Mrs. Gally's sake but oh, I really enjoyed re-setting the alarm later - both times. In the end, Mr. and Mrs. Tiny, Teeny Tiny and I headed to the finish line around 8 a.m. and cheered the ladies in.



Mrs. Gally was amazing, completing an extremely difficult distance with less training than she would have liked due to work and family commitments. It was a great performance too - she was 7th of 33 women who started the race and only half an hour behind 4th.


Photo by Kristen Harrison

Congratulations! Dee was a rock star, getting up early to drive us to the race, supporting us all day, then spending 12.5 hours on the trail with Mrs. Gally while still fighting the remnants of an upper respiratory infection. Thank you so much, Dee!




Photo by Kristen Harrison



Post-race debrief: I'm happy with my relatively consistent pace and better-than-expected finish. All muscles are slightly sore but that's dissipating quickly. Feet are in great shape blister-wise; I just need to deal with that inflamed retinaculum (and google to find out what it is). And of course, I didn't lose any weight at all. Running doesn't do that for me - even 15 hours of it. Grrr.

So for the UTMB accountants, I now have 10 points including 8 earned this year, so I can enter the lottery for the 2013 or 2014 event. I am starting to work on my French already!

Mrs. Gally, Dee and I have arrived in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Gally keeps forgetting to include the "u" when she pronounces the town's name (seriously!), so we had to coach her carefully as we approached the U.S. border crossing. No sense attracting too much attention!

Nice pre-race pasta dinner, friendly people, a few familiar Ontario faces - it seems to be a really well organized event. It is definitely my type of event, given that every aid station serves coffee and chocolate covered espresso beans! Later in the day, the aid stations will even have AA and AAA batteries.

Mr. and Mrs. Tiny should arrive shortly but it's 9 p.m. and time for bed, so I'll see Tiny when we meet for the ride to the 6 a.m. start.

Supposedly, the organizers will be posting splits during the race - after the first few aid stations when runners have spread out. Check the race website at http://www.oc100.org if you're curious. They said they'd either post it on the Webcast page (see bottom of menu at left) or they would put a link right on the home page.

Mrs. Gally starts her 100-miler at 5 a.m. Tiny and I start 100K at 6 a.m. We will run two 50K loops. The splits in each loop are approximately 11K / 11K / 14K / 14K. The terrain is supposed to be similar to Hockley Valley - lots of up and down but the hills aren't quite mountains. It sounds like the trail is more technical - rocky and rooty but completely leaf-covered so the rocks and roots are hidden. I taped my ankle extra well and put a brace in my mid-race drop bag.

Dee plans to join Mrs. Gally for the final 50K loop plus an extra 11K side loop to bring the total up to 100 miles. Unfortunately, Dee is still dealing with a bad respiratory infection so she may have to start pacing at a later aid station.

Coach Dee has impressed upon us that we must drink, drink, drink today. Lucky for us, they were offering free samples at the Duty Free store at the border.



'Bent and Slowrunner are in Pine Mountain Georgia for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler. He said it's ridiculously hot but otherwise life is good; he had a Starbucks decaf soy mocha in hand as he was typing his e-mail.

Thanks for all the good wishes - I've passed them on to the ladies. Catch you on the other side.

Heading to meet Mrs. Gally and Dee for our girls' road trip to scenic Titusville, Pennsylvania! Mrs. Gally is going to rock the 100-mile Oil Creek trail race with Dee's expert pacing for the final 38 miles. Tiny and I are doing the 100K while Mrs. Tiny and Teeny Tiny cheer from the sidelines.

For some reason, I'm not feeling into a long race right now. The dogs made sure I had less than 4 hours sleep, and my bad ankle, legs and hips are aching as if to say, "Don't do it!" This is not like me. But maybe I just need more coffee and a better night's sleep. If I feel strong tomorrow, the plan is to push outside of my comfort zone a little more than I usually do in long races - just as an experiment since this race doesn't really count for anything. It doesn't even have age groups so there is nothing to lose! Coach Dee has given me some ideas on where to push. But at the moment, it doesn't feel like it's going to be one of those good days!

My thoughts are with 'Bent as he gets ready for his first 50-miler in Pine Mountain, Georgia. We'll be running at the same time, and fortunately Slowrunner agreed to go down and pace him for the last 40K. Fingers crossed that the knee surgery worked as well as we think it has!

Every once in awhile, I get a little carried away, thinking that my engineering education may have prepared me to do something practical in the real world using tools and things. Which brings me to this morning. I'd spent 90 minutes with my head alternately under the kitchen sink and inside a dishwasher that refused to drain, looking for clogs and bravely removing part after part, hoping I'd be able to piece it back together again.

I'd finally excavated about as far down I dared to go. There were some openings. I stuck a finger in one to see if I could feel an obstruction. It was a small tube with a curve in it and I pushed my finger further inside... and it suddenly occurred to me that 'Bent is flying to Georgia for 3 days, and I had a vision of myself stuck all weekend inside my dishwasher like some handyman version of Aron Ralston - yikes! I carefully extracted my finger.

I googled "Bosch dishwasher won't drain" and found an instructional video. I'd tried most of the stuff already but there was one last idea to try. I returned to my excavation and dug around with a fork handle until I discovered a pine nut preventing the drain pump impeller from turning easily. It's the sort of thing we appliance repair people see all the time. ;) The test run worked perfectly and I was almost as chuffed as when I finished the Death Race. Probably $200 saved that we can spend on something more fun! :)

Great news from the New England Journal of Medicine:

I think we've all heard some version of this:

"A subclass of flavonoids called flavanols, which are widely present in cocoa, green tea, red wine, and some fruits, seems to be effective in slowing down or even reversing the reductions in cognitive performance that occur with aging."

But the results of this statistical analysis are new and exceptionally encouraging:

"There was a close, significant linear correlation (r=0.791, P<0.0001) between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million persons in a total of 23 countries. When recalculated with the exclusion of Sweden [Bash's note: why does Sweden *always* have to be different? ;) ], the correlation coefficient increased to 0.862. Switzerland was the top performer in terms of both the number of Nobel laureates and chocolate consumption. The slope of the regression line allows us to estimate that it would take about 0.4 kg of chocolate per capita per year to increase the number of Nobel laureates in a given country by 1. For the United States, that would amount to 125 million kg per year. The minimally effective chocolate dose seems to hover around 2 kg per year, and the dose–response curve reveals no apparent ceiling on the number of Nobel laureates at the highest chocolate-dose level of 11 kg per year."

There is more and it is amusing.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMon1211064

Before this weekend's Oil Creek 100K trail ultra, I wanted to check one last time to confirm that my legs were working. It's been a busy few weeks, and there haven't been many non-weekend runs. There's also been a disturbing trend of bruises and goose eggs on my right lower leg. First, when 'Bent and I were moving a heavy jade plant back indoors so it wouldn't freeze, the pot smashed my leg into a concrete step. Twice. So I had a scraped and swollen calf at Run for the Toad. A week later, I slipped while hiking (hiking, fergawd's sake!!) across a slimy wooden bridge and smashed my shin against a corner of it as I hit the ground. More bruises and swelling. Then I banged my knee on something in Sunday's orienteering event - big, painful bruise.

Phew, everyone knows that bad things always happen in threes. Except for this. Today I stepped on a thick branch hidden under autumn leaves, and it flew up and smashed me in the shin again, right on top of the previous goose egg. Arggh.

Anyway, pain aside, BazingaDog and I had a nice run on leaf-covered trails at dusk in chilly weather with big raindrops just starting to come down, hinting that they may turn into snow.

It's *almost* cold enough to start course testing for Wilderness Traverse, especially the parts where we'll need to swim rivers or wade through waist-deep swamps. Sure, we could do this when it's warmer but Getawaystix ran off to France with a beautiful woman in September, and he has just turned his mind back to event organization. We roughed out the 2013 race course today, subject to what we find out when testing. Looks like another good one. :)

And it's official...

Wilderness Traverse will be held on August 17-18, 2013. You'll be racing in the Muskoka region but we will wait and announce the host venue after all permissions have been confirmed.

150 km of trekking, mountain biking and paddling with challenging navigation on the beautiful Canadian Shield. Teams of 3 or 4, open or coed. 24-30 hours.

Earlybird registration will open soon. Hope to see you there!

Note to Oil Creek runners from their Facebook page.

Safety Note - wear some bright colors during the race - brown or all black/grey not recommended. Muzzleloader Deer, squirrel and grouse seasons open this Saturday (race day) along with the ongoing deer archery season. Oil Creek State Park has 6250/7026 acres open to hunting. On a side note for those free range organic meat lovers, porcupines are in season and the daily limit is three!

Thanks to Hansel for stopping by with Bunk so we could tire our pooches out together on our neighbour's fenced property. Bunk was an excellent guest, BulletDog was well-behaved as always, and BazingaDog needs to work on his noisy company manners. Sadly, I only have pics of dogs - not of Hansel. But I'm sure there are a few recent pics of him floating around because he GOT MARRIED on Saturday. :)

Congratulations on the latest step in your journey together, Scott and Caitlin!

The Republican Party continues to confuse me. Apparently, it is possible to be pro-life when it comes to abortion yet also support the right of parents to seek the death penalty for rebellious children. (!!) WTF?