Western States 100- Best Race I have ever run !!

Defending champ Hal Koerner crossing the American River

Tomorrow is the 2009 running of the Western States 100 mile in Squaw Valley,CA. I ran this race back in 2003 and let me just say I feel so lucky to have be able to run it. I dream of doing it once more. This was the first 100 mile trail run in the U.S.A back in the day. It in my mind is still the best. This years race field is pretty stacked with some good runners. I am looking forward to watching the race web cast on the Western Sates web site www.ws100.com to see how the race shakes out. I would say check in during the day and see how it is going !!! This is my picks for the top 3.

Mens: 1) Dave Mackey 2) Scott Jurek 3) Hal Koerner

Womens: 1) Nikki KImball 2) Jenn Shelton 3) Krissy Moehl

Hitting Rock Bottom

The bright spot of the weekend- Fathers Day with my kids !!!


You know that saying that sometimes before you can recover from something you need to hit rock bottom first. Well this past Saturday at Grandma's marathon I believe I hit that bottom. For far to long now I have been struggling with my running. I have felt way to many days of self dought and motivation with my running and I was just muddling along. I have not run nearly enough miles, done way to few speed workouts, and just not felt it in my runs for a long time now. I am not sure why I feel this way ? Maybe it is 2 years in a row of sports hernia surgery ? Is it the lingering shitty feeling of my one and only DNF in 24 years of running at last years Leadville 100 ? Is it something more ? Regardless it is here and I need to buck up at get help and try to change it.

Going into Grandma's I knew I was not ready to run a marathon the way I used to run marathon. Races where I could blow up hard and still run sub 2:50 every time. No this year was going to be no way close to that. But I did feel that I should be able to run around 3 hours pretty easy. Hell I have done some 20 mile long runs this year where I ran at 6:55 to 7:00 min mile pace I sure hoped I could get 6 more miles in at that pace come race day. Well lucky me and many other people we got a super hot and shitty day at this years Grandma's. This changed things a bunch. I started out hitting 6:45-6:52 pace every mile up till 10 miles or so. Then by half marathon in which I got there in 1:31 I knew it was time to shut it down and just run/walk in to the finish line. My mind and body had had enough and was done. This was so darn hard to do. I had not felt this type of dis pare in a road marathon since my first one back in the 1994 Twin Cities. I just did not have it in my heart to push myself. I knew I had more in my legs, this was evident by the 6:30 pace I was running from mile 24 to 25 when I saw my Mom and little Evan cheering and looking so good to me !!! I was just broken inside. I got to the finish in 3:19 and was happy to be there. It was my 2 worst time ever. I am broken but will be fixed someday.

I guess on the bright side it was nice to see a bunch of friends up there in Duluth. Plus I was super proud of my wife Sonya who hung on to finish 22nd woman and I believe 3rd in the 40-44 age group. She does not like the heat but gutted it out like the super trooper she is.

Now it time to start the rebuild Kurt project. I am going to start with some easy running then go into Afton in a few weeks with looking at it as just a fun run. Then go from there. Maybe I do not go to Leadville 100 in August. I need to remind myself I do not have to do that race, I need to want to go. Till next time...

Week before Grandmas Marathon

Well it is marathon week I guess. Last week was a ok week for me leading into this week. I tried to keep it pretty easy but at times push myself a bit. Overall I am happy with last week. I know I have a TON of work to do after Grandma's in order to be ready for Leadville 100 in mid August. The plan for now is to run the marathon at a pace that feels good and does not trash me to much for the upcoming weeks. I am all signed up for Afton 50k trail run which is two weeks after Grandmas then two weeks after Afton Paul and I are planning on a 50 mile run on the MN Voyageur course. After that it will be 5 weeks till Leadville.

On this post I have also linked a great part 1 video from Runnerspace.com. It is part of a documentary with Bill Dellinger. Man this guy has had his hand in American distance running for many years. First as a Olympic medal winner then as a longtime coach of the Ducks. Enjoy and check out the RunnerSpace site if you have time.




Monday 6/8- easy day from home 5 miles

Tuesday 6/9- Ran from the store after work. Josh joined me for the first 5+ miles which was nice. I up to this point had never run with Josh. After he pealed off I ran a few loops at marathon race pace. Overall good run. 8 miles

Wednesday 6/10- Ran in the morning before work. Did a lakes loop. 6 miles

Thursday 6/11- easy day 5 miles

Friday 6/12- Ran with the Hyland trails group at 6am. It was a fun loop. I felt pretty good but not great. After run had some coffee with Adam and Paul and then was off to see Scottie at the Broast Clinic. Feels great !! 8 miles

Saturday 6/13- Ran the lakes before work. Felt ok but not great. It was feeling warm to me. I wish this could hold off till after Grandmas race. Even though I am not racing it I still do not want to melt out there. 5 miles

Sunday 6/14- Ran with Sonya, Evan, Paul and Sean on the MKTA trail. Nice and flat and soft dirt under my feet. I felt pretty good. 12 miles

Miles for the week= only 49 but oh well

Week of 6/1 to 6/7

One more week closer to Grandma's and one more week of me wondering what the hell am I going to do up there. I guess we are only like 2 weeks out so I will know soon enough.

Monday 6/1- Got out with my Tim from across the street for a 6am morning run. We did a little shake out down by the lakes. I felt a bit tired but not bad. It is nice to have someone to get you out in the early AM sometimes. 7 miles

Tuesday 6/2- Went for a run with Nick after work. It was a very nice night to run and it was good to hook up with my good friend. I let him talk me into running his speed workout with him on the MPLS Southwest track. Let's say me having to climb a 12foot fence is not a good thing ! Once in the track I ran pretty good I thought. We did 8x400 with 1:20 jog between. Given I have not ran on the track in like 1 1/2 years ? I felt good keeping them at 70-72 seconds per 400. Solid I thought. 8 miles

Wednesday 6/3- It was National Running Day today and I had the pleasure of running with some guys from the store. It was Adam, Dave Tappe, Chad Austin, John Nasland, and Jared Mondry. We had a nice group run. 9 miles

Thursday 6/4- Easy recovery day. 4 miles

Friday 6/5- Ran with Tim down to the band shell and met up with Nick for part of a run. I felt ok today. 6 miles

Saturday 6/6- It was Fans 24 hour day. I went down to the race after work to go help Sonya's friend Kim who was running her first 24 hour race. She has run many trail 100's but she was feeling the difference by the time I got there. She was at 62 miles when I started with her and by the time I stoped to go home with her it was 11:00 at night and I had run 20 miles. She was doing great and I felt good about getting her in a good frame of mind. I got her to add 2 more walk spot's in the loop for a total of 3. She did not want to do this at first but soon say she was running like 2 min's per loop faster while doing this ! Sonya went back down at like 5am and came back with the good news that she won the wmns race with like 120 miles !!! What a day. 20 miles

Sunday 6/7- Ran with Nick in the afternoon for a good easy run. 8 miles

Miles for the week= 62

Asleep at the Blog I guess

Man I have not been very good keeping up with this darn blog as of late. I guess it is good that I have been keeping busy at home and work. Well let's get caught up.

Monday 5/25- Ran with Evan and Sonya down to the Brian Kraft 5k to watch Sonya and a bunch of friends run the race. It was fun running to the race with Sonya and Evan. During the race Evan and I ran a few miles and waited to see the gang come on by. A bunch of the TCRC guys looked pretty good overall. I know we where a bit short handed. Sonya ran a very good race all things considering. She went out real slow on purpose ( like 6:18ish ? ) to keep her some mid-section in check. She finished strong and was 3rd masters woman in like 18:59. We ran some after and then Evan and I ran home. Nice day ! 12 miles

Tuesday 5/26- Nice 8 mile run

Wednesday 5/27- Did a speed workout from work of 10x 1min on at 5k pace and 1 min off. I felt pretty good overall. I averaged like 5:45 pace on the pick up's. 9 miles

Thursday 5/28- Nice 8.5 mile run in the morning.

Friday 5/29- Took day off. just not feeling it I guess.

Saturday 5/30- Went out with the best intentions but once more was just not feeling it. Might have had something to do with the very busy day off work ? Or maybe me just being week. 1 mile

Sunday 5/31- I ran in the Minneapolis 1/2 marathon today. It was a very nice day to run that was for sure. I went into this run with the idea of keeping it pretty easy and use it as a good pace run. With the help of my handy Garmin 405 I just settled into a pretty good groove. I was keeping it around 6:23-6:30ish pave most of the way. I had a potty break at like mile 5 which lost me like 1 min but then I got back on pace after that. In the end the clock read 1:27 so a 6:34 pace. I think over all I am pretty happy with this effort. I still do not know what to think of Grandma's but I will give it a shot. 14 miles for the day ( no warm up because of forgetting watch and having to drive home before race )

Miles for the week= 53 ( not bad I guess giving that I flaked out on two days )