Cascade Crest 100 Course Recon

I got out on the course for the Cascade Crest Classic 100 this past week while on a business trip to Seattle. Scoped out a nice campground at Kachess Lake and then ran the first part of the course up to Goat Peak and a few miles out and back from Stampede Pass toward Meadow Mountain.

The CCC100 Runners manual describes the climb from the Start up to Goat Peak as "not trifling". Essentially the same elevation gain and mileage as the climb up to the Escarpment at the beginning of Western States, but with more difficult footing and with a 10 am start the heat of mid-morning could definitely come into play.

As you pass by the rock outcropping on Goat Peak you can basically see the entire course to the North and East. From here you settle in on the Pacific Crest Trail for some great ridge running, eventually looping back around to the Start/Finish. Yep, add this one to the must do list.

Wasatch 100

I had the honor of pacing my friend Geoff "Ringo" Scott at Wasatch this year where he completed his 17th 100 Miler and 2nd of the 2008 season! Wasatch is an amazing course and with iPhone in hand we had a blast sending live updates from the course to the Trailheads and taking calls and txt messages of encouragement at all hours!

(excerpt from my email to the rest of the Trailheads Sept 6th)
"Ringo set off this morning on a 100 mile journey from Layton to Midway, Utah through some of the most beautiful scenery in the Wasatch Mountains. It was a beautiful start under clear, starry skies. We're far out of Hurricane Hannah's reach and the start was at a very comfortable 50 degrees and 35% humidity. With the sun rising now it's shaping up to be a spectacular day! Winds out of the South around 10 mph means it will get nippy up over 10,000 feet later tonight and we're expecting some frost, but nothing like Gumbi's recent adventure at Leadville.

The Wasatch 100 is one bad mother of a course. Just driving around the mountains here is intimidating. With over 26,000 feet of elevation gain, its no suprise that Wasatch ranks an 8.5 out of 10 on the difficulty scale (second only to Hardrock). This fills one of the few remaining holes in his Ultrarunning resume that includes 15 100 milers and Badwater 135M!

Mrs. Ringo and I will be heading out to see the Reptile at the Francis Peak aid station at mile 18.76 shortly. The plan for the day has me jumping in from mile 39.4 sometime this afternoon and pacing to mile 61.68 where Mrs. Ringo takes a turn and I get some rest. Then I pick back up around the wee(zyling) hours of the morning at mile 75 and try to keep up with him to the finish."

Ringo looked good as he came through Francis Peak, but even more impressive was Caroline Scott's crewing!

I was dying to get out on the course and mile 39 didn't come soon enough. The views from the course turned out to be even more beautiful than I anticipated. We made great time from Big Mountain Aid Station at mi 39 to Lambs Canyon at mi 53 and then put on our cooler weather gear and headlamps.

From Lambs Canyon to Millcreek 61 was some of the best night running I've done. There was a nice quarter moon, perfect temperatures and it was just magical out there with occasional city lights views of Salt Lake City.

At mi 61 I turned over the pacing responsibilities to Caroline who would get Ringo through to Brighton Ski resort around mile 75. I drove up to Brighton from Millcreek and took a short, restless nap in the back of the car.

The Wasatch course dials up the intensity in the last 25 miles. From Brighton the course heads up a steep climb over 10,000 feet. We hit the top right around dawn and it was just spectacular.

The "100 miles of heaven and hell" for Ringo came to an end after just over 34 hrs. I was exhausted after only45 miles!

I've definitely got this race on my must do list. I think the sub 24 "Royal Order of the Crimson Cheetah" is going to be tougher than the Rusty Spur though...

London

London has some great parks. On Thursday of last week's Europe trip I set out from the Hilton London Metropole and wound my way down into Hyde Park and then up to Regent's Park (pictured). A bit more pavement connecting the parks than I'd like, but once you get in the parks there are generally nice soft surfaces that can be found.

My original plan, on advice from Willow, was to run around Hyde Park, then over to Regent's Park, then to Primrose Hill for a good hill, through the neighborhood of Belsize Park up into Hampstead Village, and then on to the Heath for another hill and a run through the woods. And then back in reverse. Unfortunately I ran out of time, but now I've got something to look forward to on my next trip to London.

Milan

I found a lovely park just a block from my hotel in Milan today and managed to get out for a run on crushed gravel. I have no idea what the history or significance of this park is. From the signs I gather that it is called the Giardini Pubblici Di Porta Venezia.

My original thought was to head out to Como where there are some killer hills and beautiful views, but with so little time in Milan it seemed silly to head out for a daytrip. Besides, gotta save something for next time...

Over the Alps

The visibility was spectacular on the flight from Amsterdam to Milan giving us some amazing views of the Alps. According to our pilot, Mont-Blanc is out there somewhere in this picture.

The Ultra-trail Du Mont-Blanc is run here, a 103 mile ultra with over 30,000 feet of elevation gain. Just for kicks I checked out the UTMB entry process for 2009 here.

Qualification requires a demonstration of success in trail ultras with significant elevation gains. They have an interesting point system whereby the difficulty of your qualifying runs is estimated by adding together the distance in km and the elevation gain in meters divided by 100. For example, Bighorn 100 was 161k and 5334 meters of elevation gain: 161 + 5334/100 = 214.

Qualifying runs have to score above 65 and present a significant altitude gain and/or a sufficiently technical course. Races are worth 1 point for an estimate effort between 65 and 89, 2 points for 90-129, 3 points 130-179 and 4 points beyond that. A total of 4 points is needed to qualify, which can be accumulated with multiple runs (e.g. four 1 pointers, one 4 point run, etc. I *think*), So, looks like Bighorn 100 works as a qualifier for 2009 and 2010.

After seeing it from the plane UTMB is definitely on my 5 year wish list along with Western States, Wasatch, and Hardrock!

Amsterdam

I had a few hours in Amsterdam after a some business meetings on Monday. Not enough time to find any trails, but there are some nice old streets with lots to look at (snicker). This picture was taken in the heart of the Red Light District. Very different scene at night...

Trailheads Summer Survival Trail Running Series

The 1st run of the Trailheads Summer Survival Trail Running Series was a big success last night! We had about twice as many people as we expected - somewhere around 80. Most indicated that they had never run in the Carolina North Forest before and many were very new to trail running. As you can see from the picture, the demographics were somewhat varied, but I'd say the majority of the runners were women in their 30s.

Big thanks to Squonk for organizing this and leading off with a nice lecture on trail running, active environmental advocacy, and how running in the wilderness amplifies nature's resonance.

For more information on the series see trailheads.org. What and Why of the series below...

What: Accompanied runs beginning at 5K (ish) or 45 minute duration. Comfortable pace. No runner left behind. Series culminates with a 90 minute outing with some navigational challenges thrown in for fun! Each outing will briefly kick-off with a speaker on subjects ranging from injury prevention and core building to basic gear, hydration and cross-training. Important: these outings are NOT races.

Why: Summer heat makes running challenging. Did you know that you can expect it to be 10 to 12 degrees (F) cooler on trails than pavement on summer evenings? Get to know the dirt trails in Carolina North Forest and understand trail running fundamentals that can be applied on any trail, any time of year. Learn how to run confidently and safely "out there" to more fully appreciate the importance of Carrboro and Chapel Hills' "island of trees."