2012 In Pictures

2012 was a fun year for me and before I get into 2013 (am currently having a bit of a rest and dealing with a knee issue from Desert Solstice that I probably shouldn't have run on at Across the Years 24 hour) I wanted to reminisce, in roughly reverse order. It's mainly the people that made it so enjoyable but I'm thankful to have seen so many beautiful places.

Running and walking through Across The Years 24 Hour  with Dave James and Mike Arnstein. Photo: Aravaipa Running

Jon Olsen and Mike Arnstein running sub 13hr 100 milers at Desert Solstice . Photo: Aravaipa Running

The day before JFK50 on a run with CR holders Max King and Ellie Greenwood, plus  Andy Mason being the guide extraordinaire.

Running around Mt Hood v2 with a bunch of speedsters - this photo has Ellie Greenwood, Max King, Steph Howe and  Mike Palichuk. Was fun to do a training run with no less than 3 World Champs (Ellie, Max and Amy Sproston was the 3rd)

Running around Mt Hood v1 in sunny weather with Yassine Dibboun and  Brian Donnelly (taking this shot)

Runs at Smith Rock, this one with an early winter snow for a day

Mountain running up South Sister with Steph Howe and Taryn  Hand

Atop South Sister with Middle and North Sister in the background. It was shorts and T-shirt weather at the summit but cold back in town

Running down Middle Sister on the way back to the fiery parking lot on the day the massive Pole Creek Fire started

From the top of Middle Sister before we spotted the smoke

Rod Bien and myself with no idea we'd spend much of the rest of the day escaping the fire and just managing to get the car out on sketchy fire service back-roads

Starting to speed up when we saw the fire might be somewhere near the car

An ascent of Mt Bachelor looking at most of the Oregon Cascades

Hanging out post-UROC 100k after trashing our legs. L-R: me, Dave Riddle, Jorge Maravilla, ?, Nick Clark, Dave Mackey and Scott McCoubrey. Photo: Bad to the Bone

Pre-dawn running with Eric Senseman at TNFEC Madison 50-miler. Photo: TNFEC

Road marathons - this one was the Sunriver Marathon, close to home

My father-in-law crewing at the Tri Cities Marathon in Washington

Hiking at Crater Lake after the marathon there

Jumping around the day before the Crater Lake Road Marathon

The first road marathon of the year, running along with Devon Yanko (she was still Crosby-Helms at this point) at the Napa Valley Marathon. Photo: Napa Valley Marathon

After the sleep deprivation of  the 216-mile Cascade Lakes Relay on the Footzone Mixed  Team, it's not surprising my world was sideways. Frans Alajoki hands over to JJ Howard

Hanging out after the Mt Hood 50 miler with Pam Smith and Yassine Dibboun. Photo: Long Run Picture Company

In the foothills of the Pyrenees before the Zegama Marathon. L-R: Ian Corless, Mike Wolfe, Nick Clark and Marcus Warner

Skyrunning hospitality pre-Zegama. L-R: Bryon Powell, Sean Meissner and Mike Wolfe

Days before Zegama was the Transvulcania 83km race. Bryon's interviewing Darcy Africa and Nikki Kimball for irunfar

Transvulcania winner, Dakota Jones, swinging Nikki Kimball  round at the party organized by the local Mayor

Running post-Transvulcania on the same island (La Palma). Nick Clark behind me then Dakota Jones. Photo: Joe Grant

UTMB stars Seb Chaigneau and Francois D'Haene running around on La Palma

Sunset at La Palma around Transvulcania

The huge Salomon contingent the day before Transvulcania. A few runners from other sponsors are dotted in there too

More La Palma running. Too many names for me to pick out but Joe Grant's in the foreground

My one UK run of the year at the Northants Ultra 35-miler, 2 miles from where I used to live when I was growing up. Photo: Amy Sharman

Badger Mountain 50k in Washington. The final outing of that particular Elvis suit. Photo: Glenn Tachiyama

Gorge Waterfalls 50k - my first finish of the year after a DNF at Rocky Raccoon. Photo: Glenn Tachiyama, I think

Multnomah Falls along the Gorge Waterfalls course

New Year, New Sponsors

2013 should be a lot of fun for me with races like the Fuego y Agua 100k in Nicaragua (with a star-studded field), the Jungle Ultra in Peru (this is why I run ultras!) and the Grand Slam. So I'm very fortunate to have some great companies to support me through the year who are all dedicated to making the best products without compromising on the details.

Scott Sports - these guys are really breaking into running in a big way with ultra legend, Scott McCoubrey, knowing exactly what a great pair of shoes requires. And with the likes of Marco De Gasperi and Sage Canaday on the team, I know I've joined some ridiculously good runners who'll be creating headlines throughout the year.

Clif Bar - great organic race food from a company I hugely respect for their attitude to the community and to everyone they deal with. It helps that their food tastes good too.

Julbo Sunglasses - I'm loving the pairs of glasses I've already tried out (which is a good selection of their running offerings) but most races recently I've worn the Dust shades which are also great for trail running, especially with the Zebra lenses that change based on the amount of light.

Drymax Socks - the best in the business and certainly the best I've ever had for avoiding blisters. I always used to think socks didn't matter but since I moved up to 100-milers I'm feeling the benefits of wearing socks that leave my feet in good condition at the end of a race. The Max Pro Trail is perfect for any trail race and the Max Pro is the comfiest sock I've ever worn and is my go-to for road races.

UltrAspire Hydration - under the guidance of Bryce Thatcher, Krissy Moehl and others UltrAspire is making the best possible hydration packs and handhelds for ultrarunning, not just the mass market.

Dave's Killer Bread - great quality bread from Oregon that seems to be very popular with the ultra community over here. If you can find it where you live, try it out.

Across The Years 72/48/24hr

Motivational signs - always useful. Translation from American to British English:  If you are literate then you're a jolly spiffing chap.

After the Desert Solstice 100 mile/24hr race was cut short at 70 miles by my inability to accept that Phoenix, AZ, can be stormy, windy and cold, I was looking forward to down time at the end of the season. However, the Coury brothers also have a second 24hr-style event called Across The Years so I decided on Christmas Eve that I didn't want my training to go to waste and I entered it.

It's an interesting concept - 72/48/24hr races that straddled 2012 and 2013, hence the name. And instead of a 400m track like at Desert Solstice, it uses a flat 1.05-mile loop near Phoenix on a gravelly path with some paved sections. That sounded more interesting, plus it has a lot more people than the 20 runners round the track.

In fact, at least five of the runners returned after varying degrees of success at Desert Solstice - Joe Fejes won the 24hr race 2 weeks ago and smashed Yiannis Kouros' old 72hr course record this time with 329 miles (six more than Yiannis); Charlotte Vasarhelyi won the 24hr race before then broke the Canadian 72hr record with almost 251 miles and I returned with Mike Arnstein (12:57 in the 100 with a ridiculously fast final three hours followed by 100 miles this time in the 24), Dave James (about 23 miles at Desert Solstice then 50 miles on day one and 50 more on day three of ATY). Full preliminary results are here.

I turned up a day early to spectate and crew for Bret Sarnquist as he did the 24 over the middle day of the event since there were three separate 24hr races with the winner being whoever ran the most out of all three days. Compared to a trail race there were a lot more marathon T-shirts, especially from Boston. But as with any ultra everyone was as friendly as can be and it was good to make new friends. Plus my old running club in London had a representative in the 72hr event in my friend, Jen Bradley. She jumped in at the deep end of ultras this year by running her first 100 (I think) then running across the US over the summer. Then she had a really solid race at ATY with over 200 miles and third woman. I can't fathom doing that loop for three straight days...

Jen Bradley and Anastasia Supergirl Rolek in the 72hr race

Running 70 miles at a pace that was on track to go under the American Record for 100 miles two weeks ago left me more tired than I realized so within an hour or so my legs were sore, even at 30 secs/mile slower than the pace in that previous effort. Not a good sign, but this time I was in for the full 24hrs so it looked like being a long day with a 3:18 marathon split feeling more like a 2:40 effort. Mike Arnstein found the same and Dave James wasn't feeling it either, so we all hit 50 miles between about 7:20 and 7:40, way off the pace I'd hoped for. Dave stopped, but Mike and I grumbled along, epitomized by us both frequently mentioning we couldn't see the point of running/walking a relatively poor distance. We also definitely questioned why the hell we do this sport when the tough days can be so unnecessarily nasty.

It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day and the aid station had a full kitchen where they took orders for meals and had a wide variety available. It's certainly a great set-up, but the gravel paths were tougher on the feet than expected. Most runners were in road shoes or racing flats, but those who switched to trail shoes seemed to avoid some of the (unexpected) foot bruising that 24-72hrs of running on that surface caused.

Things weren't going to plan but we'd made the effort to fly out, me from Oregon, Mike from New York. Dave had only driven up the road from the same metropolis as the race was held in, so he probably had less incentive to keep going. However, once I told Mike that there's a buckle for breaking 100 miles, he put his head down and we set about checking off slow miles, with me doing little else but walk after the first five hours. However, there was a bright spot when I decided to reinvigorate my legs by trying a fast lap and aiming to go under Sean Meissner's best lap time from the previous day of 6:09 (5:51/mile pace). I squeezed out a painful 5:41 (5:24/mile) then went back to walking as it didn't do anything other than brighten up my outlook for half an hour. 

Sean Meissner leading the way on the 24hr race on the middle day.

Tents - where people hid in the middle of the night to reduce the number of people out there from about 170 to more like 20. Bastards!

The one thing I'm happy about is that I chose to grind out a full 24hrs even though there was no hope of getting anywhere near my goal of the 24hr British record of 170 miles. Given I've got the Grand Slam (four 100s over the summer) in 2013, I thought it was worth sucking it up and proving to myself that I can force out a semi-respectable result even when things go bad. But this was the most miserable and painful race of my life, as well as the longest in terms of time and distance. I've never had to dig really deep in an ultra before about half way so this was an emotional experience with a lot of time walking through the sub-freezing night to contemplate about many things and to work out how to avoid this happening to me again.

In the end Mike stopped at 100 miles after about 17hrs while I went through 100 in just over 20hrs after hitting 70 at 12hrs and managed 109 in total (a mere 39 from the second 12hrs), with around 65 of that as a power-walk. Not fun, but satisfying to have not given up, despite the final 19hrs (longer than I've ever run) being a painful, slow and difficult death march. 

Without a doubt it was a fun idea to bring in the New Year while doing something that I love, but I was in a world of misery at that point and was struggling to get my head around the idea of there still being nine hours left, even as we toasted with champagne at the aid station. But there are much worse ways to celebrate the New Year, although I'd have struggled to name them at the time.

The other positive to take away (apart from proving to myself I can dig in even on a bad day) was that I somehow won since nobody else did more than 106 miles and many who could have gone farther stopped at 100. I don't blame them. But that's overshadowed by the fact that several of the 72hr runners did more miles on day one (and maybe day two) than me - Joe ran around 140 miles on his first day!

So, lessons have been learnt. Firstly, fixed time races are mentally tougher than fixed distance trail races and very boring once things go wrong. Secondly, 70 miles at a reasonably hard effort tires me out more than I can tell from one test run. Thirdly, I should end my season when I originally plan to and not add on extra races, especially very tough ones. And finally, the Coury brothers put on excellent races via Aravaipa Running and I should probably turn up to one giving it more respect than just assuming it's relatively easy because it's flat.

Time for the off season, trips to Bend's brew-pubs plus a lot of sleep. Happy New Year everyone!

Additional write-up:

I wrote the above while on the plane out of Phoenix. However, I then got stuck at Portland airport overnight after no sleep for two days. It wasn't just a delayed flight but a flight that started at PDX, flew for 25 mins to Bend, circled for 40 mins then decided the freezing fog was too dangerous and we went back to PDX to arrive after 11pm. Since it was a weather delay Alaska Airlines wouldn't pay for anything and I ended up 'sleeping' in the airport. I got home by 2pm on Jan 2nd and am now looking forward to a year that can only improve and with a lot of fun stuff lined up.

Christmas Oregon Walks

A few photos from mini hikes in Oregon over Christmas, including at Multnomah Falls where the beautiful Gorge Waterfalls 50k is held.

Forest Park, Portland.

Amy at Forest Park.

More Forest Park.

Forest Park.

Multnomah Falls - very Lord of the Rings.

That same bridge.

Looking the opposite way at Multnomah Falls.

More water at Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls from farther back.

Desert Solstice 100-mile/24-hr

I just got back from the Aravaipa Running Desert Solstice 100-mile/24-hr track race in Phoenix, AZ, and it was another great event with fantastic performances and excellent organization. Again I was blown away by the fun atmosphere and truly good people involved in the sport, especially the Coury brothers who directed the race - Nick even ran 139.7 miles to get into the US 24-hr team). However, for me it was a learning experience and things were going almost perfectly then very abruptly went to hell at 70 miles.

The allure of a track ultra was the chance to go for fast times and records so I made sure I had suitable races in the build up to help with that (road marathons and ultras like JFK50 that are mainly about maintaining an even speed without much in the way of hills). So I was well prepared, albeit with a blip two weeks earlier from a brief knee injury that stopped me racing the TNFEC 50 in San Francisco.

The aim was to run hard for 100 miles (or 12 hours) then decide whether it was worth continuing for the 24-hr challenge. So I had several targets to aim for and knew the rough splits required for each:

• 12-hr World Record: 101.02 miles by Yiannis Kouros of Greece at New York on 11/7/84 (for some reason this doesn't count as an American All-Comers Record too, possibly due to lack of documentation provided to USATF) 
• 100 miles: 12 hrs 
• 100 miles North American All-Comers Record: 12:05:43 by Andy Jones of Canada at Sylvania, OH on 9/27/97 
• 100 miles American Record (not that I'm eligible but it's a good target): 12:12:19 by Rae Clark at Queens, NY on 4/1/89 

Failing those, I still had the back-up of a 100-mile PR to aim for at 12:44:33.

So I started at a reasonable pace that felt fine and got a few PRs for new distances along the way with splits of:

• 2:58 Marathon 
• 3:32 50k 
• 5:47 50 Miles 
• 7:19 100k 
• 8:20 70 Miles 

Realistically I was then heading for the 12:12 American Record as my pace had dropped slightly but I felt good running with Jon Olson who finished the 100-mile in 12:29:37 for one of the fastest US 100-mile times ever. At that point I had a 7-lap lead over Jon (1.74 miles) but I made a fatal mistake and let the elements get to me.

Phoenix has a desert climate and it doesn't rain much, but it also doesn't get very cold in winter. I'd raced there twice for the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon each year in January and had an idea of what to expect, but the forecast of showers and temps in the 50s during the day seemed ideal for fast times. So I made the mistake that some people made at Western States this year (which had 40 miles of cold, wintery weather up high) and planned to run race conditions that are typical rather than what actually happened on the day.

When a nasty rain-storm got going and the wind picked up, I assumed it'd blow over and kept running for a couple of miles in shorts and T-shirt while everyone else put on layers. Eventually I put on a light rain jacket but was already cold, so that reduced my appetite and I probably ate nothing for roughly an hour while over 100k into the race. The predictable bonk led to walking through the aid station on the track and taking on more food, but when I slowed down for just a few minutes my body temperature plummeted and I started shivering uncontrollably. I walked a lap but only got worse and had to go inside to get warm as I was close to hypothermia and it took a couple of hours to stop shivering.

It was frustrating to have made such a simple error but I had only turned up to chase records so a 2-hr minimum stoppage put those out the window and it wasn't worth continuing for the sake of grinding out either 100 miles or 24 hours. I know others would have got out there again but I wasn't there to see if I could keep going for the distance, but to do it as well as possible. At least I learned something about track racing and also got a reminder to stay on top of all the things that can cause an ultra to go bad mid-race.

The one thing I'd expected was to find the experience mind-numbing, but it was enjoyable to see people again and again along the track and to run the first 20 miles with Dave James then later on with Jon. It's much more exciting than expected to watch it, too, especially as we got close to the 100-mile finishes and runners pushed to their maximum to shave minutes off their times. The most incredible thing to see was a topless Mike 'The Fruitarian' Arnstein negative splitting his 100 miles to break 13 hours and to unlap himself numerous times from Jon (the weather improved again after it got dark).

Mike lapped consistently around 6:20-6:40 mile pace for hours at the end and his final marathon must have been in the low 2:50s! I'm pretty sure even Yiannis Kouros at his peak would have struggled to match that pace for that long after 10 hours of running. Jon was still running around a 7:30/mile pace for much of the final hours and that was also amazing but I couldn't believe Mike didn't blow up. His emotional collapse at the finish line was something we all could understand after such a hard push and his success at breaking 13 hours.

One other person mention is Pam Smith ran an amazing 100-mile race too, with a 15:01 finish despite losing her timing chip when changing clothes and spending many minutes trying to find it.

If track ultras sound boring, try one and see if you still think that. There's something positive about seeing the entire field at the same time rather than just those running at the same speed as yourself. I'm not going to make these my main focus but will be back again to run hard and see what's possible in terms of speed in the fastest style of ultrarunning possible.

Results are here plus will be on the race website in more detail soon.

Top Global Ultra Performances in 2012

This year has been spectacular for ultrarunning. Given we're near the end of 2012 and there aren't many chances for mind-blowing performances left before 2013 (probably none on trails), I thought I'd go through some of the incredible runs that people have done this year. I've been lucky enough to see many of these in person and each has been inspiring and helped to push the boundaries of our sport. There were many more great runs than those below, but these are the ones that really stood out to me as being on a different level.

Men:

Dakota Jones, Transvulcania, Canary Islands (Spain), May - With almost 15,000ft of ascent in somewhere around 50 miles in this Skyrunning Ultra, plus heat, humidity and a large portion of the world's best mountain runners, Dakota ran a 6:58 course record. Having run the course up and around a stunning volcano personally, his dominating performance was really special and set the bar early in the season.

Dakota after winning Transvulcania. Photo: International Skyrunning Federation

Ludwick Mamabolo, Comrades, South Africa, June - Arguably always the deepest field of ultrarunners in the world, it takes sub 6 min/mile pace over 55.5 hilly miles to win this in a 'down run' year. The top 10 men were spaced out by a mere nine minutes and the winner has to be considered to be one of the most impressive ultrarunners globally. Sadly, this year was marred by the fact that Mamabolo seemingly failed his A and B sample drug tests according to all the newspaper articles I could find. Strangely he's not been disqualified and there doesn't seem to be any news on this since July (when his B sample was tested and failed).

Tim Olson, Western States 100, USA, June - Admittedly the weather was favorably mild but Tim destroyed the full course and the record with his 14:47 finish (20 minutes off Geoff Roes' 2010 North American Ultra Performance of the Year). His pace over the last 38 miles distanced him from the pack who were all around course record pace (and annoyingly just a few minutes ahead of me) for the fastest finishing split ever. This is a record that I suspect will last at least until the next time the weather is freakishly easy and that could be a long time. I'm not sure anyone could come close to that time in the heat.

Mike Morton, Badwater 135, USA, July - Mike's run was a minute off the course record of 22:51 for 135 miles through Death Valley in obscene temperatures. I only saw him once while I crewed Aussie Dave Eadie since he zoomed off at such a pace it seemed impossible to sustain. He was under the course record splits until very close to the end but a slow climb up towards Mt Whitney robbed him of the record. It was the first time I witnessed Mike's running and his style and pace makes it such a great thing for the sport that he's back to full fitness and racing again.

Hal Koerner, Hard Rock 100, USA, July - Hal's proved he's a tough runner on any type of terrain but is better known for his fast times at relatively flatter 100-milers, like his wins at Western States, Rocky Raccoon and Javelina show. But he ran 24:50 for one of the fastest times ever at this insanely hard and high altitude race. Not bad for someone not living at altitude and firmly placing him among the top ultrarunners of the year.

Kilian Jornet, Skyrunning and Other Ultras, Globally, All Through Summer - I don't even know which of his runs was most impressive but he showed again that i the mountains he's second to none with wins at Speedgoat 50k (controversial and technically a DNF), Trofeo Kima, Cavalls del Vent and Grand Raid de la Reunion. He also won numerous non-ultra mountain races, often beating the best runners in the world, including Max King (see below for what he does out of the mountains).

Mike Morton, World Championship 24-hour race, Poland, September - Mike won the gold medal with one of the best 24-hour results of recent years and smashed the US record too with over 172 miles. That's an AVERAGE pace of 8:20/mile for a full day! Amazing as this is, it's still 16 miles short of Yiannis Kouros' mind-bending 188.6 miles, the world record from 1997. That's probably Yiannis' most amazing record (just my opinion there) and that's saying something from such a legend, so Mike's distance is still absolutely incredible.

Max King, UROC 100k, USA, September - After a couple of 50-milers that saw Max blow up near the end, he focused more on long runs and it paid off with 7:57 for at least 60 miles and something like 10,000ft of ascent. Running behind I was convinced he'd blow up (or more likely get lost given he has a tendency to do this while leading) but he sustained the pace and broke away from speedy marathoner and US Mountain Running Team member, Sage Canaday. Yes, there was a lot of road in this one, but not much was flat and this was probably the most impressive performance I saw this year.

Max King, JFK 50, USA, September - Last year David Riddle's 5:40 course record got the North American Performance of the Year so Max's 5:34 shows another level of pace and was yet more proof of his incredible abilities in ultras.

Miguel Heras, TNFEC San Francisco, USA, December - Probably the deepest field of the year at an ultra, although a few top contenders certainly weren't there (Max King, Geoff Roes, Anton Krupicka, Kilian Jornet and others) but there's no way that everyone will manage to turn up uninjured and pick the same race since that doesn't even happen at the Olympics. Miguel ran incredibly fast and benefited from the leaders going off course then having to catch up later. However, his closing lap was so much better than everyone else that there's a good chance he'd have caught and overtaken the leaders anyway. 5:33 for almost 47 miles of muddy hills was truly exceptional.

Women:

Anna Frost, Transvulcania, Canary Islands (Spain), May - Like Dakota's run at this race was his most impressive of the year, this was Anna's most amazing run. 8:11 smashed the course record but nobody else even got close to her and she was mainly racing to get into the top 10 men in a deep field of talent, just missing out with 11th.

Anna Frost celebrates after Transvulcania by smoking Dakota's prize. Photo: Ian Sharman

Elena Nurgalieva, Comrades, South Africa, June - The Nurgalieva twins have dominated both major South African road ultras (the other being Two Oceans) for a decade but since Olesya was having a baby there was no chance of another 1-2 finish. Even when they had a bad year in 2011 and struggled, they still managed to finish in the top two spots. Elena racked up her seventh win (third in a row) and tenth consecutive podium with her fastest ever time - 6:07 (6:36/mile) for 43rd overall!

Ellie Greenwood, Comrades/Western States 100 double, South Africa and USA, June - Ellie chased Elena down at Comrades and finished a mere minute off the win (48th overall), which is impressive enough in itself. Then three weeks later she took a whopping 50 minutes off Ann Trason's rock solid course record at Western States 100, running 16:47. These are probably the two best performances of the year by a North American (yes she comes from Scotland but is virtually a Canadian citizen now). Admittedly there's the same asterisk by the Western States time that Timmy has for his CR, but I have no doubt that both of them ran the best performances ever by a woman and man, respectively, at Western States.

Lizzy Hawker, Spartathlon 153, Greece, September - After a month in which she won the shortened UTMB and Run Rabbit Run 100, she also won the Spartathlon 153-mile road race with a course record 27:02 for third overall. Lizzy's always pushing boundaries, but that month was something special and the Spartathlon win on what must have been tired legs was impressive.

Ellie Greenwood, JFK 50, USA, November - obviously 2012 was kind of Ellie's year given her results at trail, mountain and road ultras of multiple distances. But the other really notable performance was her 17 minutes off the course record of America's biggest and oldest ultra. Her win and record was no surprise but cemented just what a versatile and fast runner she is, running 6:12 for tenth overall.

So I think it's fair to say that 2012 showed a step change in the level of trail ultrarunning with so many course records being broken, often by large margins. For example, we saw the eight of the top 20 Western States times for the men in the 2012 race, plus six of the top 20 women's times. Many major races required times that would normally win just to get anywhere close to the podium. So 2013 is something to look forward to.