Where's Waldo 100K Race Report

Well...

I've finished my Where's Waldo 100K race report. It's a beast. Like 6,000+ words a beast. That's my warning to you!

If you wanna check it out you can CLICK HERE! I saved it on my BT training log.

I'm thinking about getting out and doing some light Mt. biking today. Depends if I have enough time or not. Let's hope so cause I'm getting a bit antsy!!

I'm outta here!

_Jacob_

Working on that Race Report!!

First off if you wanna check out the race results with splits just CLICK HERE. If you don't want splits just google Where's waldo 100K. :)

This past week has been incredible. Taking the time to look back and think about what I did on Saturday. Last Saturday was absolutely amazing. When I say amazing that just doesn't do it justice. I spent almost 14 hours running.. walking.. climbing.. and sitting in the Oregon wilderness. Nothing could have prepared for me the feelings and emotions I felt.

I haven't really said a lot about the race yet because I really don't want to ruin the race report... but I can't help but mention a few things. I'll go ahead and list them....

1) I couldn't have done this race without Courtney. Physically or mentally.
2) 8,000ft is a lot higher than I thought...
3) 3 X 8,000ft is a bitch.
4) I saw a black bear while I was completely alone around mile 58.
5) I had mentally given up around mile 25.
6) I negative split the last 10 miles.
7) I ran in shoes that only had 3 miles on them at the start.
8) Courtney drove me to the closest McDonalds afterwards.
9) I couldn't have been ANY happier with my race.
10) I made some great friends over that 14 hours.

Without Courtney being out there for me there is no way I would have been able to finish that race. She was there EVERY step of the way... She was standing out there for 14 hours waiting for my slow butt to make it back! And of course she was waiting right there at the finish line for me... How good was it to see her.

Thanks to everyone else that made that trip possible and have joined me in my adventures. 4 years ago when I was still close to 200 pounds and had no idea how long a marathon was I would have never.... ever.... thought I could do something like what I did on Saturday.

Alrighty.. back to that race report!

_Jacob_

Running 62.5 miles...

WHOOOOOO! This weekend I completed the Where's Waldo 100K Trail National Championship. I finished the race in 13:47:55. The race was absolutely amazing, and it couldn't have been any more beautiful. I wanted to post this quick update to let everyone know how well it went and that I'll be posting my race report and some photos very soon. Hope everyone is doing well and training hard! I'm gonna be relaxing and taking down time for at least the rest of this week!



_Jacob_

It's all about PERFORMANCE!!!

Ok, so this video is genious. It's absolutely HILARIOUS! Found it a few days ago and have probably watched it close to 50 times. I figured it's time I share it for everyone else! Enjoy!

_Jacob_

T-Minus 6 Days....

In 6 days I'll be running through the Oregon mountain country. I'll be trying to cover 100 Kilometers (62.13 miles). I cannot begin to explain HOW freaking excited I am to do the Where's Waldo 100K. My last week of training has been amazing. I've obviously been running a lot more. Last Sunday I did a 28-30 mile trail run at the Cedar Hill State Park. Monday I followed that up with a 10 mile trail run in my Vibram FiveFingers at my favorite local place, the Oak Cliff Nature Preserve. Later that week on Thursday I did another 17.4 miles out at Oak Cliff and it went AMAZING. I'm eating long runs for breakfast!

It's amazing how quickly my body is adapting to the new stresses I'm putting on it. That 17 miler was probably my last run till the 100K. I'd really like to do one more but not much can help now. I'm gonna take next week super easy and not doing anything over 30-40 minutes. Courtney and I are heading out on Wednesday morning and flying into Portland, then driving down to Euguene to stay with an uncle. I've been looking foward to this trip so much this year. I got my order from ZombieRunner.com today! I freaking love that site. Got an extra Amphipod Hydrafoam Handheld Thermal0Lite 20oz bottle (so now I have two), a large Amphipod pocket to go on my Spi belt (number belt), and this soooper bad ass flashlight that's the size of my pinkie and works for 20 hours. I'm only gonna need it for maybe 1.5 hrs, plus it's SO small that I can throw it in my pocket. (just in case I'm on the course till 9pm) The first photo here is all the stuff I have now that I'll be using at Where's Waldo.


This second photo is of the TINY flashlight I got. This thing is great becaus it's an LED SUPER bright light. It's small enough that I can just toss it in that little pouch I got for my number belt. The number belt also has a cool pouch for gels already on it.


All in all i could'nt be much more prepared for this run... Physically, or mentaly considering what I've been up to lately. (12 hours of summer school, work, and Ironman number four) Speaking of school I took my last two FINALS on Tuesday!!! :) Whoooo. Now all I have left till I graduate in December is my student teaching and one night class called Diversity. Hopefully this flies by, and next thing I know I'm crossing that stage with diploma in hand!

I'll be updating at least one more time before we leave on Wednesday. Plenty of pics will be uploaded as soon as I get back! Hope everyone is doing well and training hard!!

_Jacob_

New Product Reviews!

I've now posted a section on the upper right corner of my page with different product reviews. Everything from my running shoes, to my water bottles are getting reviewed! Check it out if you're looking into some new products!!

_Jacob_

Netflix is down...

What better time to update than when the Netflix website is down and I can't instant view any movies?!

Now listen here..... Today is Friday. Meaning that yesterday was Thursday, and that was the last day of this school week. You know what that means? That means that I have TWO. I repeat... TWO, days of classes left INCLUDING finals! Now... You're thinking, "Big whoop". Well. Once I'm done with finals on Tuesday that is IT. El Fine. All I have left is my student teaching and some night class called Diversity. Blah blah blah. I'm graduating in December and I could'nt be any more ready to graduate and leave UTA. I really worked my ass off this year in school and I'm now at the end of what I was dreading so much last December. I've taken 30 hours so far this year. Es mucho.

In other news, I ran 16 miles on Monday, took Tuesday off, then did another 12 on Wed. Thursday I did 4.5 miles around a 7:07 pace and today I'm doing around 6.4. The 16 miler on Monday freakin sucked. I have plenty of things I could blame it on, but honestly it was probably the fact that that was the second workout since IMLP after taking 7 straight days completely off from exercise. Regardless I probably held around a 9min pace w/ lots of walk breaks/bottle refill breaks, etc.

Wed I ran with Scott. We did the Northshore trail at Lake Grapevine. I've heard a lot about this trail so I was uber excited to check it out. It was a solid trail, but reminded me of how spoiled I am to have the Oak Cliff trails so close to my house. The Northshore wasn't very technical but did have a few light sandy areas. Now when I say wasn't technical I mean wasn't technical compared to my local trails. I'm sure that the Northshore is much more technical that most single track trails. I'm planning on heading back out there this Monday to get a 30 miler/5hr run done. I'm thinking I'll do the trail O&B for a total of 18 miles, then head back out&back for another 12 miles. It's going to be interesting to see how that works out. I've never just gone out and run 30 miles, but after my 12 miler on Wed I'm really confident and feeling great about my trail running. I definitely had another 20 miles in me on Wed.

I went ahead and purchased another Amphipod water bottle off of Zombie Runner(I'm planning on writing a review of that bottle soon) I'm thinking for Wheres Waldo 100K I'm gonna need at LEAST two bottles! Problem is I'm gonna be carrying a flashlight for the first hr or so and there's no way I'll be able to carry two bottles. I think I'll leave one of the bottles with Courtney (my one and only crew member!) that way I can get it from her when I get to one of the aid stations. Unfortunately I'll probably only get to see her twice, Around mile 15 and mile 32 (the halfway point).

Alrighty, enough random ramblings from me, I'm gonna see if Netflix.com is back up :)

_Jacob_

Born to Run

"Make friends with pain and you will never be alone"
-Ken Chlouber - Founder of the Leadville 100

"I always start these events with very lofty goals, like I'm going to do something special. And after a point of body deterioration, the goals get evaluated down to basically where I am now---where the best I can hope for is to avoid throwing up on my shoes"
-Ephraim Romesberg - 65 miles into Badwater

____________________________________________

Man... What a great past two months. Not only were they great, but they were TOUGH. This summer I decided that I'd take a full 12 hours in one summer. 6 during summer I, and 6 during summer II. That's more than a full load during the summer for someone that works about 32 hours a week... I knew coming into this year that I'd have to make this last final push to get to graduation in the fall, and I'm pretty much there. I knew good and well that my racing would suffer, but that it would all be worth it in the end.

Regardless of all my schooling the past month or so i've actually done fairly well in my racing! I've raced in three regional championship/state championship triathlons this year and placed 1st, 2nd, and 2nd overall. These races have set me up to reach my goal of placing first overall triathlete in the South Midwest Region of the US.

After my horrible luck last year at the Route 66 triathlon in Oklahoma, I came back this year for revenge, and revenge I got. I set a new course record by more than three minutes and won first overall. I then raced the CATS Sprint in Arkansas. There I came in second to a SUPER speedy friend who won by more than three minutes. Finally I raced the PlayTri sprint which was the Regional Championships. Here I came in second to another good friend by only 19 seconds! It all came down to the run and I just didn't give what I needed to give. I let him go the last mile or so and should have sucked it up. Regardless I got well over 101 points which is great.

On to the bigger races, I raced the Kansas 70.3 half Ironman a few months ago and man did it go well! I went into this race with ZERO expectations because my training has been anything but consistent or appropriate for the distance. Regardless in finished in a time of 4:22:23 and set a new personal record by more than 30 MINUTES. I was literally speechless. I swam around 29 minutes, Cycled around 2:26, and ran around 1:23:23. When I got off the bike I knew I had a chance to break 4:30 (Which has been a big goal for awhile) and after the first mile KNEW I had it in me. (first mile was under 6:00/mile) Final pace for the half mary was around 6:21 per mile. I ended up 1st Age Group after the first four were factored out for overall and the collegiate division. (I still feel that I was 5th) Was also around 30th Overall. Lastly, the clearwater 70.3 (70.3 World Championships) slot rolled down to me but I did not take it. My friend Scott raced as well and really kicked some ass with a 5:03! Congrats to him on a phenominal race and great half mary!!

This past weekend I raced the Lake Placid Ironman. Yes. A full Ironman on my training :) To be completely honest I was really not worried about this race even know I know good and well I should have been considering my training. I crammed a bit of training in the past two weeks or so but that was it in regards to Ironman specific training. I went into this race again with NO expectations, even though I knew I was capable of sub 10. I was really hoping for a new personal record (Sub 10:29:46). Over the course of the race my goal changed to sub 11:00 hours or sub old Lake Placid time of 11:07:35.

I came out the water EXACTLY where I wanted to be with a new Ironman swim personal best of 59:20. (That beat my old Ironman swim PR by more than 2:30) I came out of transition on my bike ready to face some serious pain! Well... Unfortunately two miles into the bike my front wheel flatted. Long story short it was super wet after a HARD rain during the swim, and it took me close to 10minutes to get my tubular tyre off. After anywhere from 10-20 minutes it was changed and I was on my way. In the end I feel this flat costed me a new Ironman PR but there was nothing I could do now! I pushed my way through the first loop of the bike and finished the whole bike in 5:48 ish which was not good. The last 20 miles of the bike really hurt, and I had no idea what my marathon time would look like....

Started the marathon with a first mile of 6:50. HA! Oh SH** I thought. Slowed down a bit and finished the first 13.1 mile loop in 1:44. Well that put me on pace for a sub 3:30 marathon which is what I really wanted. That hope quickly faded as my miles slowed to around 8:30s then to 9:00s as I started walking aid stations. I finally picked the pace up a bit as I came into town around mile 23 and finally finished in 10:40:35 after a 3:44:10 marathon, which happened to be an Ironman marathon personal best by about 30 seconds!

All in all I'm incredibly happy with that performance after my lack of training this summer. I want to thank both Scott and my wonderful super supportive girlfriend Courtney. With out those guys I woulda been a complete mess!

Finally I'm gonna end this post with a quick discussion about running... and the book I just read Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Over the past few months or so I've really started to change my outlook on racing, exercise, and running. As everyone knows I've started to trail run MUCH more, run in my fivefingers, completed my first 50K, and am about to do my first 100k in three weeks. My odd obsession with ultra running is growing and growing to the point that I'm now considering 100 milers in the near future. I have started to really enjoy... actually... love the pain of endurance exercise. I've learned to embrace the pain and work with it, instead of fighting it. My main problem is that I am a type A personality to the MAX. I'm always wanting to go further.. to push harder... to be the best. I'm never satisfied. This scares me, because I'm not so sure what will happen after this 100K. Will I want more? Will I want 100 miles? What happens after 100 miles?!? I honestly don't know... but I do know that I was born to run.

In regards to the book it's a great adventure into the world of the Tarahumara tribe in the Copper Canyon of Mexico. It covers ultra running... barefoot running, and why your expensive shoes are giving you foot pain... and everything else inbetween. Heres A LINK so that you can check it out for yourself :)

As always be sure to keep up with me at my training log by clicking HERE or on the link to the right. I hope everyone is doing well and training hard....

Run on.

_Jacob_