OTHER ARTICLES A collection of articles on various POSE and other running related topics written by and/or about Pose Method® Certified Coaches and Pose Runners of all levels.
POSETECH.COM (USA)
September 20, 2007
2007 Angeles Crest 100
by Brian MacKenzie
In both the Ultramarathon and Endurance communities, going long and training hard is typical for these elite athletes. It's how everyone in these communities has trained for years. From Bill Bowerman to the Elite runners all around the world, seventy plus miles per week is the norm. Most people who can handle this kind mileage are in a class of their own. Whether at the elite level or simply having the ability to endure immense amounts of torture they will both get you to the finish line of races. This we know! Prior to my Western States 100 finish last year my average training week was around 10.5hrs (roughly 60+ miles per week). Here is the focus! I averaged in the last 6 months of training 6 hrs and 38 minutes per week. All of it documented! I've been working with Dr. Nicolas Romanov (creator of POSE running method, www.posetech.com) since 2001 where I attended my first POSE clinic. I have been under his guidance and a colleague since.
The AC 100 starts at 5am in Wrightwood, Ca and works its way through the Angeles Nation Forest until it reaches Pasadena some 100 miles of trail later. The start of this race is no joke and it took a good hour to get up the first climb which started a half mile in. We are zig zagging north and south on a switch back trail which every time we look south east you can see the Big Bear fire which is enormous, freighting, and so beautiful at the same time. After climbing I then follow the top of Mt. High Ski resort across the top and actually run though the lifts themselves. This is where I am having a conversation with David Googins about the Mountain we are going to have to climb that looms in front of us (9,000+ft of Mountain). Last weekend I find out he had run the Plain 100. A 100+ mile event that has no aide and no course markings, you get one drop bag at mile 61 and have a good time. This is one tough dude, and he is humbling me quick. We then drop in on the first aide station at mile 9.3 Inspiration Point.
After climbing yet again I run through a much more dense forest and end up winding around a large mountain before the trail makes a huge drop to Vincent Gap at mile 13.85. Vincent Gap lies at the base of Mount Baden-Powel. Vincent Gap is at 6,500ft and Baden-Powel is at just over 9,000ft. Oh, the climb is 3.77 miles. Prior to this aide station I was keeping my cool. I could talk while running and for the most part was breathing through my nose. There is no way to keep your cool while climbing a 9,000ft mountain during a race. I walked the whole thing... Albeit it was a fast walk! When I reached the top (trust me there is nothing else higher around except Mount San Antonio/Mt. Baldy at 10,000ft+) I will suffer leg cramping for the next 20 miles because of this slow brutal climb and not having the ability to get my electrolyte mixture corrected without aide for 12 miles. After reaching the summit I then scale the ridge of these ominous mountains for another 9 miles until we reach Islip Saddle at mile 25.91. All the while having to stop every few hundred yards because of cramping.
As soon as I can get a smoothie and a red bull in my gut I leave this aide station. I am refueling my bottles with Accellerade. A 4:1 carb: protein ratio that proves to work incredibly for the entire run. The only time I don't use it is when I have no crew access. I am now climbing Mt. Williamson and not happy as it is pretty much at a 15% grade for 2 miles. I descend much quicker than I went up and cross Highway 2 and go over yet another little bump to Eagles Roost (29.98m).
Eagles Roost is where I meet my entire crew for the first time. Carl is working the camera and Kevin is getting amped up on Redline energy drinks. I do some strength recovery exercises with Melissa and eat. I am out in about 10 minutes.
The next 3 or so miles are all on Highway 2 and I choose to walk a lot of it in order to digest and get my legs back. It works...
I make my way through a campground and back onto the trail. It is familiar territory as I ran part of this section a year ago for a training run. I am running, although it is downhill. I catch up to a couple of guys I've been playing cat and mouse with and end up continuing to run uphill. This is different! I am only going with how I feel at this point. I make the long ascent (yet again!) to Cloudburst Summit (37.54m).
I decide to change my socks at Cloudburst, which is the only time I ever take my shoes off like this. I will wear the same pair of shoes and not deal with any of the blisters on my feet the rest of the way. Pain is my companion today! I eat and leave Cloudburst in about 15 minutes.
I make the long descent with a couple of ups (of course!) to Three Points (42.72m). I take in another smoothie (smoothie mixture: 1 apple, 1 banana, 27g whey protein, 1.5tbl Flax Oil). I now feel really good and it is about the same time my cramping stops. I won't see my crew for 10+ miles as the next aide station (Mt. Hillyer, 49.08m) is not accessible to crew. I get to Hillyer in an hour and a half or so rush out as quick as I can (5 minutes) and take 1hr to go 3.7 miles which is mostly downhill to Chiliao Campground (52.8m). It is pretty technical and I don't want to do anything stupid.
I reach the crew and stuff a much needed cheeseburger down my throat. I ask Melissa if she is getting pumped to start running. She explains how she was ready a while ago (she's been drinking red bull all day with Kevin). I smile and start making the 6.5 mile journey to Shortcut Saddle which is my favorite section. I've run it several times in the past couple of years and figure I can hammer it out in an hour and a half or so. There are a couple of climbs one of which I see a guy being paced by his 12 year old daughter... One of the coolest things I've ever seen! After the climbing I make a 2 mile descent which I blast and climb yet again 1 mile up to Shortcut Saddle. This where all that cramping is going to metastasize into pain and suffering (ever read my back?).
I meet Melissa and Kevin at the aide station which I am now coming in at about 7pm to. My C goal was to be here by 6:30pm, so not bad considering I slowed majorly from those cramps. FYI, Goal A: Finish before 33hrs, Goal B: Have Fun, Goal C: 24hrs (which was possible before Baden-Powel?). Back to the race... Melissa is ready to rock, so I do a couple strength exercises and eat as much as possible. Considering I just inhaled a cheese burger a little less than 2hrs ago I should have plenty of energy. I do, and Melissa and I split for one of the coolest times I will ever have in doing this sport.
My legs do not agree with my energy and we walk a while and discuss the world of ultra-running as Melissa gets her first taste of running into the night. After about 20 minutes we jog and start our journey toward Newcomb Saddle. As we start the climb up after descending for quite a few miles Melissa is just baffled at what we are doing. Then out of nowhere something crashes down the side of the mountain as we approach. It was large and wasn't a deer! I honestly at that moment was not worried, but knew she was. So I just said whatever it is, it's headed down and not up. Yes, I think it was a bear, but could be very wrong... What the F@$K I have to get to Newcomb! By the way... HOW LONG IS THIS DAMN HILL? I could have sworn (from Pacing Jeff Stein last year) it was much shorter than this. F@#KERS! ?... We get to Newcomb (67.95m) and are out in 3-4 minutes.
The descent from Newcomb to Chantry Flats (74.55m) is HORRENDOUS, and I failed to mention that to my wife. She quickly finds out and I am now leading her down the mountain and she is having trouble keeping up. Honestly I looked like a drunk trying to run, but steep technical downhill is all good with me, and I remember everything if I've been there before. To paint the picture for those who don't know the course, you drop well over 2,000ft in 5 miles on a single track trail that is about a foot and a half wide in most places. It also runs along a cliff that if you choose to misplace a foot, you will wind up at the bottom quicker than you wanted to go. Melissa now cannot believe what they have us run on!
Adventures like this are what I live for!
As we reach the bottom of the descent we quickly come upon a cabin (they have these P.O.S. cabins in the middle of nowhere out here that you have to hike to in order to use them) that seems to have some commotion going on at it. As we get closer horns start to go off, people start to scream, and a wild rooster start squawking and we are being chased by some lunatic drunk woman. Well Melissa is being chased as I am in front of her about ready to crack skulls. What is it with me and drunken people at 100 mile runs? If you didn't read my write up on Western States last year I walked into a very similar situation. As soon as we get rid of the woman we reach the first part of the climb to Chantry. It sucks as it pitches us up 500 something feet in a mile. We finally reach grand central!
Chantry is where everyone comes to continue to root on all the runners remaining in this brutal race. Most that have pulled out are all ready doing so well before Chantry. Then you have those who can't see past not making it up to Mt. Wilson Toll Road... Some 3,000+ft up in 6.24 miles, 2.5 which is inclined well over 16% at 78 miles into the run? I have yet to do this climb, but have heard about it and am starting to get that nauseated feeling in my gut as I sit on my tailgate contemplating going home. Leigh Corbin (friend and fellow runner who is crewing someone else) stops by in her car and chats with me. I think she feels I am doing great and midway into her saying something to my wife (who has just completed a very long run in the middle of the night) I blurt out loud... “You know what Kevin? Let's get the F out of here”. And I hop off the tail gate and start to limp up the road out of Chantry with Kevin and up yet another MOUNTAIN.
Kevin is so fired up on redline energy drinks and is so ready to charge up this thing. I let him know his job is to get me up this mountain ASAP. It takes just under 2.5hrs to make the climb, but now we have to head down to Idlehour (83.75m) which is about 3 miles away and my quads are smoked from all that cramping. We get down the hill at almost the same speed as we went up. DAMN! Kevin is now starting to deal with cranky, malnutritioned, mildly dehydrated Brian. We finally get to Idlehour and I eat one cup of Miso soup and one cup of chicken noodle. Then inhale a Mountain Dew and then some pretzels. Oh and 2 cokes and I fill one bottle with Gatorade and water. My stomach is not agreeing with the Gatorade and it never really has. We check out ...
We are headed up a little mountain and down to a creek bed and up another (yes) mountain and it is 5.5 miles. I was told that was all we were doing by the aide station crew and am finding out it was a LIE. After we get to the bottom and start heading up to the aid station we then head down to another creek bed that isn't marked anywhere and we find our way to what we think is the trail. We then head up another mountain and I am fuming. This wasn't in the cards! If you look at the profile of what I am complaining about it can't realistically be called even a hill. So we continue up and Kevin listens to my B.S. as I rant and rave. We finally hit Sam Merrill (89.25m) and right before that I ask Kevin to ask them how far we just went from Idlehour. As we get into the station I see the mileage marker and am devastated. F#$K! 5.5 miles? I could have sworn it was at least 7.5 miles! Screw it.... I eat 3 doughnut holes and something to drink fill my bottles with the Gatorade again and we are out of Sam Merrill and headed 6.58 miles downhill to Milliard (95.83m).
This is the most ruthless job of putting together a course I have ever seen now! We head down (but have the most insane view of LA) a cliff on a trial that is 1 foot wide and has noting but jagged rocks everywhere on it. Not only am I not able to run at this point because of the sheer pain in my legs but the trail won't even allow it. I swear up a storm and come to the conclusion that I am going to finish this thing in a descent time even if I have to walk. BUT IF I WALK ITS GOING TO TAKE EVEN LONGER! It needs to be over soon... I just want to sleep. It is 6am and 25 hours into a race that my C priority told me I could have made 24hr and I have less than 10 miles to go. Oh screw it! So we jog, then we walk, then jog, then a lot more walking and at 7:30 I can see Milliard. 10 minutes later we are there and my mood changes because I can feel the finish.
It takes us 4 minutes to get in and out of Millard. We walk the first mile real slow cause it is close to 8am and the sun is out in Pasadena. It is already 75+ degrees and I tear my long sleeve shirt off. We round a bend and run into 2 Hispanic runners who want to stop and let us go in front of them. I say no way Jose because it is a ridiculous thought to have someone who has traveled 96+ miles run in front of someone who looks like they are just starting to run their morning route. They go in front of us and the dude starts to egg me on... Like come on, catch me... Come on! So I engage! FULL THROTTLE TOO! He sees this and starts pointing out obstacles to me because we are traveling at a minimum of 7:30 mile/pace on technical trail. I am climbing every little hill we hit by running it and Kevin is hot on my tail. Kevin keeps letting me know of obstacles as well, and I let him know too... WHAT IS GOING ON!
What happened down that last canyon is that place that I forget about a lot. It's that place where pain and suffering make you realize how grateful you really are for all the little things in life. It's that place where pain doesn't exist... We are in an all out sprint and I don't feel like catching this woman in front of us and getting anyone pissed off or making a fool of myself. So we back off a little and I cross that line just before 8:40am Sunday morning. I drop my bottles and collapse.
The support people gave us for this event was incredible and I felt it the whole way through. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for it. Thank you to everyone. Especially my crew and pacers, Melissa, Kevin and Carl! And a special thank you to Nicolas, for the patience of waiting for me to believe this would work!
Again, I averaged 6.5 hours of training per week for the last 6 months leading up to this event. Ponder that real hard!
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