Today, it occurred to me that the KML file I used to create my GPS tracking map also contained elevation for each of the points.  I hacked up a quick script to parse all 12,000+ data points and add up the cumulative gain.  After triple-checking the logic in my script, I felt this really, really terrible sinking feeling in my gut.  I just stared at the screen in disbelief.

:~/Desktop/BMT$ ./calc_elevation.pl
Total gain = 22325.804708 meters : 73247.3908856141 feet

In my past experience, GPS units have had notoriously large margins of error when it comes to elevation readings.  I can only hope that a little bit of that error is inflating the result.  If not, this might take a little longer than I have originally estimated!

Almost 40% of my calories will be coming from the new Caffe Latte flavored Perpetuem.  Yes, it REALLY is that good!

The rest of the calories will be comprised of various solid foods and a few bars.  I tried to strike a balance between finding items with relatively high-quality ingredients and tastyness, but with tastyness receiving a slightly higher priority.  The average intensity of this effort will be much lower than most other events, so I should be able to digest foods that just wouldn’t work for something shorter (24-48hrs).

I briefly considered an all liquid nutrition plan, but I could be out there for up to a week and prefer to supplement with solid foods during really long efforts.

Here is a list of what is in the bags, for those who are interested:

• Caffe Latte Perpetuem (the most important of all!)
• Organic Toaster pastries (aka pop-tarts)
• Bear Naked granola
• Snyders multigrain pretzel sticks
• Snyders pretzel pieces (BBQ flavored)
• Trail mix (whole grain wheat thins, raw almonds, cranberries)
• pre-cooked bacon (2 pkgs)
• freeze-dried pastas (3 pkgs)
• a few slices of bread
• Bear Valley MealPack (natural energy bars)
• Kashi cereal bars
• Genisoy protein bars
• Luna bars
• Ginger chews (spicy apple flavored)

This seems like a very reasonable base weight for a 300 mile backcountry fastpack, but I’m still wondering if there is anything I can safely cut out.  Plus, I’m sure I’ve forgotten something that will need to be added.

It seems like this adventure has snuck up on me!  Less than 10 days and counting!..with plenty more packing and planning, and thinking about packing, and re-packing, and re-thinking the planning. Rinse and repeat 10 times.  Whew, I’m tired already.

My rant on the demise of the original Montrail Hardrock

I was fortunate enough to have local über-underground-ultra-runner Adam Hill encourage me to try using a more minimalist shoe. I did a lot of research, tried a few more pairs of “real” trail shoes (Brooks, La Sportiva), but eventually settled on running in a pair of road racing shoes – Brooks Racer ST‘s. It took several months to fully make the transition. My muscles needed to adjust to the lower heel, feet had to toughen up, and adjustments had to be made to my stride, but the result was amazing.

I’ve since done several 24hr+ adventure races, a 24hr rogaine, and run another SCAR traverse using only these road racing shoes, and my feet have never been happier. The only downsides are lack of durability and poor traction in leaves and thick mud. A little shoe goo can extend the durability, but not much can be done about the traction. [well, Adam could customize them, I suppose]

Along the way, I’ve become convinced that modern shoes cause just as many problems as they try, or claim, to solve.

One of the easiest to observe examples is that a lot of people heel strike when running. Why? Because the shoes they wear tend to encourage that behaviour. I would bet that if you take the average heel-striker and make them run barefoot on a hard, flat surface, they would quickly learn and prefer a mid- or forefoot strike instead.

The thick heel cushioning in most shoes reduces the bone-jarring impacts of heel landings and cuts off the natural feedback that would normally discourage a person from running that way. Another modern design characteristic which seems to encourage this bad behaviour is the lifted heel.

I’m not sure why, but all running shoes place the heel higher than the forefoot. So, even if you naturally have your foot in a flat, mid-foot striking position, you will still land heel-first due to the extra thickness under the heel of the shoe. The heel rise is usually less on racing flats, which is a big reason that I prefer them. Switching to a shoe with a lower heel changes how the muscles are used when running, so give yourself plenty of time to adapt. You are likely to have sore calves when making this transition.

Oh, all of that motion-control and stability crap…well, I bet that is only necessary because the shoe is forcing you to land on your heel and it is very hard to keep everything aligned when rolling from heel to toe without some assistance. A better idea is just to land mid-foot and not have to worry quite as much about all of that. As a bonus, your shoes will be a few ounces lighter without it.

I also read an interesting post on Joe Freil’s blog about pronation. It talks about several runners being videotaped and evaluated.  One, an elite level marathoner who had “excessive pronation”, but never had any injuries.  Another was a runner with a “perfect” neutral foot with a “significant history” of injuries. They found that the hips stayed level on the healthy runner, but dropped on the runner with the injuries. It was determined that good core strength was keeping everything aligned on the “pronating” runner, and poor core strength was the cause of injuries in the “neutral” runner. So, next time you go to a speciality store that has you stand barefoot and walk back and forth, and then tells you what kind of runner you are, just be aware that such a shallow level of assessment could be meaningless for you. Video analysis while running on a treadmill is better, but you may just be applying a band-aid (type of shoe) in an attempt to fix a more fundamental running technique/core strength/muscle imbalance issue.

I’ve learned that less shoe is better. At least for me. Fixing deficiencies in technique  and eliminating muscle imbalances has done more for my running than any shoe ever has.

I still remember the agony I experienced after visiting my first “professional” running store. They fit me in big-ass, clunky, motion-control shoes due to my “pronation problem”. My running that year was terrible, but I told myself that I just needed to give my body time to adapt, and the shoes were probably helping overall. That was complete B.S.! Since then, I’ve visited several high-end running stores and physical therapists to be fitted and analysed (including three video analyses). Over the years, my “pronation problem” has miraculously faded away. The last treadmill video analysis at a local running shop even declared me a perfectly neutral runner. How did I go from being a moderate/severe overpronator to perfectly neutral? Well, as I’m sure any good shoe company will tell you, it must have been the shoes!..and that we all should go out and buy another pair of their most expensive models after the next 300 miles!  Hopefully, I shouldn’t have to point out the stratospheric level of sarcasm in that last statement.  There are actually a few reports suggesting that the cheaper, less technologically advanced shoes cause fewer problems than the more expensive models.  I doubt you’ll find the shoe companies advertising that fact, however.

Although I enjoy running in my road flats, I still occasionally wish for a shoe with some trail-specific features.  Inov-8 is a trail shoe manufacturer whose philosophy I can get behind. I recently picked up a pair of Inov-8 295 trail shoes as a grippier, more durable alternative to the road flats. The 295 is the lightest shoe Inov-8 makes with their Endurance last. The lighter models all use their performance last which is too narrow for my foot.  So far, I’ve been pleased with them.  The heel cup doesn’t seem to conform to my foot as good as the Racer ST’s, but the grip is amazing.  Having a bit of toe protection is nice also, for those times when you get a little sloppy and have a high-speed toe to rock collision.

I highly recommend that everyone experiment and do their own research into the potential advantages of  minimalist shoes and barefoot running.  Just be sure to experiment carefully, slowly, and listen to your body along the way.

REQUIRED READING (these links were in the article, but if you missed them, click now and read! And do some Googling for similar articles…there are plenty more out there!)

• The painful truth about trainers: Are running shoes a waste of money?
• Joe Friel: Running and Core Stability

And while there, be sure to also check out a few of the sweet runs coming up in May.  Lots of good stuff.

However, in defense of my aforementioned wussiness, I’m posting two pictures that show the condition of my feet one day prior to the race.

Sexy Huh? Those are the leftover battle scars from my SCAR run three weeks ago.

After finishing the first 50 miles, my feet were getting a little tender. I was worried that another 50 might leave me gimping around for several days again, and decided to call it a day.

But honestly, my muscles were feeling a bit trashed too. I went out a little too fast in the beginning and paid for it on lap three (25 – 37.5 miles). I got a second wind on lap four, but was still moving kinda slow. So in the interest of self preservation, I just made my way over to the super-pimped aid station to relax and snack on a cheeseburger, some cheesecake, and sweet tea.

Running laps wasn’t as bad as I had imagined it might be, but I only did 4 out of the 8. Still, I think I much prefer singletrack and non-repeating loops. With this type of course, it was too easy to become fixated on my pace per lap, instead of just listening to my body and adjusting my speed accordingly. Another lesson re-learned.

I have been a long time fan of the Montrail Hardrock shoe for adventure racing and technical trail running. They always worked great with my biomechanics, never gave me a blister, drained well, and easily handled whatever terrain I took them through. They were not the lightest shoes, but were very versatile and totally bombproof. I have 4 pairs in the garage right now, and have retired even more than that over the years.

Imagine my surprise after buying a new pair last year and suddenly getting nasty heel blisters and achy knees. I had purchased the exact same model and size as all of my other pairs. The color was different, but everything else looked the same. How could this be happening?! I learned a little later that Montrail had been acquired by Columbia Sportswear. Surely they couldn’t have screwed up such a great shoe so quickly?! Did the manufacturing change? Did QA go straight to hell? I had no idea, but I was definitely not happy. After going through multiple pairs over several years, I could tell something was not right.

Today, I found some postings on www.whiteblaze.net that seem to agree with me. A few quotes/snippets:

Okay, there’s a been multiple threads scattered about WB regarding the problems with the Montrail Hardrock; they were great, but after Montrail got bought out by Columbia, problems came. The light gray has a different fit than the dark gray/yellow model. Less durable too.

…those appear to be the 2006-2007 models (the first batch by Columbia).
THe old Hardrocks are dark grey w/ blue stripes and with a yellow sole (pre-columbia):
http://www.protrek.com.hk/eng/images…ardrock003.jpg
Rumor has it that Columbia is revamping the shoes in 2008, partially because of the complaints from the post-Columbia takeover of Montrail.

having used the bomb proof hardrocks for a number of years, I have had problems with my last 2 pairs of new Columbia sportwear made hard rocks. Old ( montrail made) stock could become like gold dust if Columbia dosn’t get it’s act together. Is anyone out there having the same problems??

So, I’ve recently been on the hunt for some new shoes. I’m hesitant to try out the new ‘08 Hardrocks. I mean, they somehow managed to totally F-up a great shoe without attempting to change it (I assume). If they intentionally change it, what will be the result?

I tried some Brooks Adrenaline ASRs on my SCAR adventure run this past weekend. It seems like a good shoe for easy trails, but after 70 miles of AT running my feet felt as if a black-masked, medieval, dungeon dude had been testing out his new sledge hammer on my soles. I could barely walk for 24 hours afterwards. The Adrenalines didn’t have nearly enough rock protection. Also, the material underneath the sock liner was torn and worn away under my heal after 30 hours of running in wet shoes. There was actually a very noticeable depression in the heel area. I realize that my SCAR run was an extreme test, but come on…damaged after only 110 miles?..that sucks. A couple of other observations: 1) they seem to have great splash protection, but I think it keeps water in as much as keeping it out. 2) No toe bumper protection…ouch!

So, I’m on the lookout for shoes that will hold up on trail ultras, have a moderate amount of pronation control, and will fit a wide foot. If anyone has suggestions, I’m open. I’ve been wondering if putting some nice insoles in a neutral/mild-control shoe would give me enough support. The Sportiva Fireblades look like a badass shoe. The local FootRX has a nice treadmill video analysis that they offer for free when buying shoes, and I think they have the Fireblade. I might have to test out that combo.

We decided to try it again this past weekend, and use it as a tune-up for the Umstead 100. Our primary goal was to “just finish” it this time, but we also decided that a sub-24 hour finish would be nice. A 20 minute per mile average pace should be easy enough to obtain, right?

We planned for a Friday afternoon start. I went to work that morning while Ernie drove over from Durham. We met at my place, and left around 1pm to drop off a car at the Big Creek Ranger Station, near the Davenport Gap finish. Then, Vonda shuttled us to Fontana Dam for the start of our adventure. The weather forecast was looking bad, so we packed extra clothing and gear. After I added food for 24+ hours and a full water bladder, I think my backpack probably weighed 15-18 pounds. I knew that much weight would slow things down, but it was necessary since we were entirely unsupported.

We jogged across the dam and hit the trail around 4:30pm. The weather was mild, and we were comfortable in shorts and short-sleeves during the multi-mile ascent at the beginning. After about an hour, we had to put on rain jackets due to light, but continuous, rainfall. As we continued into the night, the temperature started dropping, but things were still relatively mild for mountain weather. Then suddenly, as if someone flipped a switch, I was slammed by wind, sideways rain, and hail. I immediately started digging though my pack for rain pants and extra layers, but I was soaked before I could get them on. I waited for Ernie to catch up and discovered that he was also caught off-guard. We had no choice but to keep moving. The high winds almost seemed to penetrate my waterproof shells due to the damp layers underneath, and stopping for even a minute caused uncontrollable shivering.

The nightfall had also coincided with a dense layer of clouds and fog developing around us, reducing visibility to less than 15 feet. It was so dense, that we couldn’t even maintain a walking pace while wearing our headlamps. The entire night was spent holding our headlamps at hip level, in order to see where we were going. Even so, it was impossible to run because we could only see a few steps in front of us, at most.

At one point, I reached a small clearing that was approximately 20-30 feet in diameter. In the middle of this clearing was a boulder, with a painted blaze and arrow, indicating a 90 degree turn on the trail. I briefly looked back, and could see the glow of Ernie’s light, so I continued for a short distance until I found a spot that was sheltered from the wind and stopped for snack. A few minutes passed, and I had not seen Ernie yet. I assumed that he may have stopped at the clearing, so I backtracked to see what was up. When I reached the clearing, Ernie was no where to be found! I searched the perimeter of the clearing and found another very small trail, which sent me into a panic. I thought he had taken this trail by mistake. I started down as fast as possible to catch him, but it immediately dead-ended at a small overlook. I went back up and searched again, but there were no other trails. I could only think of two possibilities. Either Ernie had gone completely crazy and started bushwhacking into the unknown, or he had gotten turned around and was going in the wrong direction. After several more minutes of shouting and backtracking, I finally found him. The fog had been so thick that he had circled the clearing and started back the way he had come, without realizing it! Luckily, we had passed a shelter a half mile or so before the clearing and it was enough of a landmark to give him pause. I think we were both a little shaken up after that experience, but still in good spirits, and continued on towards our goal.

In addition to the lack of visibility, trail conditions were also degrading due to the continuous rain. What were once foot trails, started to look more like small, rocky streams, with mud bogs and slick boulder fields occasionally thrown in for variety. Keeping our feet dry was impossible.

As we approached the final climb up towards Clingmans Dome, the fog tricked us again. This time, we both walked right through an intersection without noticing it. After descending a couple hundred feet, we realized something was wrong and turned around. I slowly hiked back up while carefully scanning the trail and found the intersection. Once on top, we decided not to go up the tower, because the wind was howling, we were still struggling to keep warm, and we wouldn’t have been able to see anything at all.

The descent on the other side of Clingmans is extremely technical and rocky, and on that night, was also covered with sheets of ice. What was already a painfully slow pace, became even slower as mother nature had decided to add a new challenge and set of hazards to our journey. We knew that Newfound Gap was not far away, however, and kept plodding along.

At Newfound Gap, I took temporary shelter at the public restroom. It smelled strongly of urine, but blocked the wind and provided some degree of warmth. I desperately needed to dry out my feet and give them some first aid. I think the perpetual wetness had softened my feet and made them more susceptible to damage. I was also trying out a new pair of shoes that wasn’t providing nearly enough rock protection for this type of terrain. My poor feet were getting thrashed.

It was almost 9am, and I think several of the early morning tourists were startled and scared by the sight of a battered, soaking wet hiker who was sitting on the restroom floor applying duct tape to his feet. I wish I could have captured the expressions on their faces. That was probably one of the highlights of this unbelievably masochistic adventure.

After generous duct taping and lubing of severely chaffed areas (you don’t want to know) we continued on our quest. Although neither of us mentioned it at the time, I think we were both a little hesitant about starting the second leg. It had taken us almost 17 hours to go a little over 40 miles, and we still had 30 more to go. But, it was now daylight again and the rain had temporarily subsided, so we kept our reservations to ourselves and concentrated on the long ascent in front of us.

The break in the weather only lasted for about 3 miles. As we were approaching Charlie’s Bunion, I heard the first sounds of thunder in the distance. The storm quickly caught up with us, and set the tone for the remainder of our trip. The temperature dropped to 41F, and the rain never really stopped from that point on, it just varied in intensity. At times the wind was so strong that I was getting wet from rain pelting my face and forcing its way though my hood, even though I was also wearing a wide-brimmed Gore-tex hat for extra protection. I also got wet around the waistband from blowing rain coming up under the jacket.

This section was more mentally and physically taxing than anything I can remember. I was constantly shivering, and struggling to maintain dexterity in my fingers. I had one dry fleece top, pair of tights and pair of gloves left in my pack, but I wanted to save them for the night when the temperatures would drop again. Since I was already having a hard time maintaining warmth during the day, it seemed like a good idea to save those as insurance against hypothermia later on.

Some day, I’d like to go back out on the first 10-12 miles on the east side of Newfound Gap. There were many sections of narrow ridge lines with clear views on both sides. I bet the views would have been spectacular in good weather. I think an overnight backpacking trip would be a lot of fun on that section.

We stopped briefly at the Tricorner Knob Shelter to take refuge from a particularly heavy period of rainfall. We had 16 miles left, and I finally gave in and put on the last of my dry layers. This allowed me to keep reasonably warm for the next several hours. Once or twice I even had to open the pit zips on my jacket to keep from sweating! This extra little bit of comfort did wonders for my state of mind. I was still miserable, however, because this just gave my other pains a chance to take center stage, while the shivering took on a secondary role. At least I could think about something else for while.

As we passed though Low Gap and made our way up towards Mt Cammerer, the mountains decided unleash all of their rage upon us. It was almost as if they were trying to stop us from escaping. I have no idea what the actual wind speed was, but I liked to think of it as a “sustained howling speed”. It was strong enough that I was concerned that trees might be blown down on top of us. The wind was accompanied by another surge of rain and drop in temperature that would have been a serious morale killer, had we not been so close to the finish. We just put our heads down and tried to think of the 5 miles of downhill that would greet us at the top.

The miles seemed to go by more slowly as we went on. At times, I thought I was running relatively fast down the hills, but according the mileage on the trail signs, I was barely maintaining a 20 minute mile. We both were thinking that the signs must be wrong. How is it even possible to “run” a 20 minute mile!? I can only guess that the previous 28+ hours of battling the trail and the weather had severely beaten us down and clouded our judgment.

I had been awake for more than 37 hours and started experiencing some strange hallucinations during that last 5 mile section of downhill. I had been having mild visuals since the late afternoon and seeing weird images in the rocks and hillsides, and mistaking moss-covered trees for cushioned park benches. Those types of hallucinations fall into the category of “eyes playing tricks on you”, though, and occur fairly often in ultra events such as this. What happened to me during the last couple of hours was very different.

As I was running down these very technical hills, my consciousness seemed to become detached from my body. It was like I was experiencing everything from a third-person perspective. This third person view of myself quickly morphed into a video game, where I was steering myself down an obstacle course and trying to collect all of the white, rectangular “points” (the trail blazes) and get to the bottom as fast as possible. Ernie was behind me, and I started viewing him as a competitor who couldn’t be allowed to collect the white rectangles first, or else he might win. A short time later, another element was added to the game. I started imagining that I was carrying another person, or perhaps a spirit of a person, down the mountain, and that their well-being was dependent upon my winning the game. I became very focused on winning.

After some unknown period of time, I started realizing that I was hallucinating, but my awareness of it did not immediately make the hallucination go away! My “real” brain wanted to know who this spirit person was and couldn’t get an answer from the “fake”, hallucinating brain, so it declared B.S. and informed everyone that it was just me running on the AT and nothing more…No video game, no spirit people, and no life or death consequences to finishing first. The fake brain then said something like “screw you, this is fun” and started making airplane noises as I swerved around a few boulders in the trail. I’m not sure if I held my arms out as wings, or not. This internal debate between the real world and my hallucination continued for a while, before the real world eventually won the argument and I came fully back to reality.

We finally reached the car after 30+ hours of hiking and running, which equals a 2.4 mile/hour average pace if the distance is accurate. It is hard to fathom that such a tremendous amount of effort and suffering resulted in such a slow pace.

The adventure was a success, however! We could finally mark SCAR off of our lists and make shallow promises to each other that we would never make another attempt at this brutal “run”.

We quickly loaded up the car and safely made it back home, where Vonda had frozen pizza and a growler of Wee Heavy-er Scotch Style Ale waiting on us! She totally kicks ass! Even after 9 years of putting up with my crazy adventures, she still supports us with style! (though, she does call us stupid when we whine about the pain afterwards, but I can live with that)

If anyone else is thinking of attempting this, my first piece of advise is “don’t!”. If you decide to ignore that warning, then at least make sure you are prepared for any kind of weather and allocate much more time than you think you’ll need. Newfound Gap is the only reasonable bail point, so you need to be entirely self-sufficient and prepared for anything along the way.

Happy adventures! Maybe I’ll see you at the next one!

Links to other SCAR reports:

• SCAR 2003 – Report by Scott Brockmeier
• by David Horton