Western States Training Run Archives ~ TRAILMOMMA

May 27, 2015April 15, 2019

STAR STRUCK (WS TRAINING RUN 2015)

This past Saturday was my favorite day of the year. Day one of the Western States Training weekend. More than any race, I love this day. 32 miles on a beautiful amazing course with a couple hundred of the coolest people on Earth.

This year, the price rose significantly but if some of the money goes towards trail maintenance, I am okay with that. This trail has it all: huge climbs, massive descents, water crossings, breath taking views and apparently weather patterns that will totally surprise you.

As is tradition, Pigeon and I signed up and planned our day together. I think we have mastered some parts of this run but I still think the day can unfold entirely different than you may have visioned. This trail can do that to you.

I, for one, didn’t know quite what to expect. Let’s be honest, since AR50 I have not been running very much. I had one 14 miler in Auburn about two or three weeks ago and that’s been about it in terms of “long” distance running. To say I went into this completely untrained is an understatement. Yes I have some miles under my belt, but AR50 was early in April and it is now late May. Luckily my body remembers what to do AND even more important, Pigeon was just off her 100K at Quicksilver two weeks prior and was running on some tired legs (though she still rocked it).

As the week wore on, I was slowly getting excited and very nervous. Pigeon knows that I love this day and she was trying to be super excited for me but I think she could tell via my texts that my mind has been elsewhere lately.

Pigeon and Myself 2010 — 2010 Selfie – hahaha

2014 - getting better at the selfie! — 2014 – getting better at the selfie!

Just like last year, Pigeon and I met in Forresthill and checked in for the run. We then got a ride to Robinson Flat where we quickly realized the fog was making things really difficult to see and the rain was starting to come down pretty hard. Oh yea, and it was 40 degrees.

I had not planned on rain. The forecast that I saw didn’t say a thing about rain so I was wearing a tank top and shorts and brought no form of long sleeves what so ever. Thankfully, Pigeon had an extra pair of arm sleeves with her so she wore those and she gave me her long sleeve shirt. I would have been fine running in the 40 degree rain without anything but I was DEFINITELY more comfortable with a shirt.

We used the restrooms at the start and then quickly started running. Running = warmth so we ran. It was hard at first as this section is pretty rocky and your body is still trying to figure out what it is you want it to do.

I did not take many photos in the beginning of the run as I only had my phone and I wasn’t about to pull my phone out in the rain.

Pigeon and I had a lot to catch up on. She told me all about her 100k. I am so proud of her. She worked really hard for that race and I feel like now, she can go into Tahoe with a weight off her back (more or less) and perhaps enjoy the day a little bit more.

We were not the only ones who ditched the bus option and caught rides to Robinson Flat. What is cool about that is you get to see some awesome runners fly by you. Somewhere in these early miles Stephanie Howe ran by us. She won The Western States 100 Mile race last year. They look so effortless when they run but at the same time, they are super nice and say “hi” as they pass.

So it pretty much rained for four hours straight. It would lighten up at times and then come down hard again. My tummy needed some adjustment so unfortunately I had to stop once or twice but the fog makes for great camouflage! 🙂

When we hit the first aid-station, the rain was just sprinkling. Some awesome volunteers where manning the station and had huge smiles on their faces. These people are great. Pigeon came right in and asked for duct tape?! I had no clue what she needed it for but apparently her head had shrunk okay, maybe her visor got stretched out, so she used duct tape to try and make it fit a little better on her head. 🙂

I checked out what was on the table. My tummy was still uneasy. We chatted with the volunteers for a bit while Pigeon was adjusting her visor and then we were off and running.

The wet conditions and fog made the trail seem different to me so it was kind of like seeing things for the first time. Most of the time, this run is on the warmer side which can be a recipe for disaster later in the day. Not today, today it was cool and damp.

We played tag with a group of other women who were running either before us or after us all day long. For the most part, we were always ahead of them.

Soon we were starting to descend down to Swinging Bridge. This is a long brutal descent that really makes you start begging for an uphill but never fear as Devil’s Thumb is what you have to climb in order to get out and that is a doozy but I secretly love Devil’s Thumb. 🙂

We crossed swinging bridge and downed some calories for our climb. Last year the bridge had been burned in a fire and so we had to cross through the river in order to get across which meant we were soaking wet on a very hot and brutal climb. In fact, this was the first time ever that I have climbed Devil’s Thumb and not had it be scorching hot the whole way.

There were a few people climbing the thumb at the same time. Pigeon was in front. I tend to not like people on my heels so I usually step aside and let them pass even if it means I may catch them later, I just prefer not to have someone right behind me.

Eventually, Pigeon pulled off to the side too to adjust her arm sleeves I think and I just went in front of her. There were a couple of crazy athletes who RAN up the thumb. Man, that just blows me away. One foot in front of the other I just climbed strong and steady. I turned around to say something to Pigeon and realized she was no where behind me.

I kept climbing knowing that there was a switchback turn coming up and that I could maybe see her better. Sure enough, the switch back came and I stopped to see if I could see her. I did. I called down “Are you alright?” “I’m good!” she said. So I followed with “Do you have enough water?” 🙂 Pigeon has been known to run out of water on this climb from time to time. “Yes,” she called and apparently the guy behind me laughed at us. Just looking out for my runner.

Onward I went. Joe McCladdie was at the top taking photos. He always makes me laugh. He is always in a spot that is notoriously difficult but since he is there you HAVE to smile and there is no better way to climb a beast than with a smile. Thanks Joe!

I finally reached the top of Devil’s Thumb and I waited for Pigeon. I downed some of the Oatmeal Banana Cookies that I made while waiting. That climb really gave me an appetite and also evened out the stomach issues I had been having.

Finally Pigeon reached the top and we took off running except that while I had been standing there I had become really cold from the damp weather. I had put my long sleeve back on but my legs were stiff as boards when we started running. I must have looked hilarious.

We reached the aid-station that was at the water pump and this is where I had my first potato chip. Not sure why I grabbed one. My hand sort of gravitated to the bowl but oh my word if that wasn’t the most amazing thing ever at that moment. I had only a few and then I tried to have some of the fuel that I brought with me. Funny how I don’t eat potato chips regularly but out in the woods in the middle of no where, they looked divine.

Onward we ran. At this point, the rain had stopped for good and the sun was trying to poke out from behind some clouds. It was also getting humid. I must have taken that shirt off and on about a hundred times in addition to pulling up the sleeves and then pulling them down again.The reasons of erectile dysfunction may be of cialis 10mg no utilization. So your partner and you have come to a conclusion whether Vitamins can really replace oral ED medication like icks.org lowest price levitra and Tadalis. cheap canadian viagra The medication basically inhibits the PDE5 enzyme from operating, thus allowing more blood to flow through to the penis. It was so unknown that it was called Kenpo Karate so it could be identified with the art of Karate. commander viagra

After that aid-station you descend down into El Dorado Canyon which is a pretty steep down as well. It was here that my right knee started to yell at me a bit. Okay, maybe yell is too mild, scream bloody murder might be better. My knees just cannot handle downhills, steep downs and this one is notorious for making my knee hurt.

There were times when I had to hobble a bit near the bottom but I finally made it. I need to work on my hip flexors and IT band a bit more – oh and not jump into a 32 mile run on a whim. 🙂

Next up is the climb to Michigan Bluff. This is a good 2.5 mile climb and again, I have only ever done this climb in brutally hot weather. Today it was cool and there was as light breeze. Wow does that make a difference.

Pigeon had to use nature’s restroom so I told her I would start off walking up the hill a bit. Not wanting to get too far in front of her I stopped and took some photos.

Trail Selfie - I look all alone but there were lots of people out there — Trail Selfie – I look all alone but there were lots of people out there

Once Pigeon caught up to me I saw she had found a bunch of friends that we know. So we all hiked the climb together just chatting and catching up on some things. Eventually though, we all spread out again.

I had some people on my heels and I was feeling too crowded so I let them pass. It was here that I saw a woman behind me further down on the switchback. I looked and thought to myself, “I know her!” But I wasn’t 100% sure.

Finally at one point, she was close enough for me to get a good look and sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed. It was Pam Smith, 2013 Western States winner and one of my favorite bloggers. I adore Pam not only because she is a kick butt runner, but also because she is a full time working mom of two kids and has an active spouse to boot. I can totally relate to that. While her kids are quite a few years older than mine, she gets it and understand the hardship of being a mom and wanting/needing that time to run crazy races.

I turned and asked her if her name was Pam and she said yes and that started what was to be one of my favorite highlights on this years Western States Training Run day. We chatted the whole way up to Michigan Bluff. She was pretty honest with me. She asked me if I was running states and I said no and that I was pacing a friend at TRT100 and that I have two young kids so I can’t really envision WS100 in my near future … Pam said, “Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it only gets harder as they get older. I thought it would be easier but it isn’t.” HA! While I kind of knew that, it was funny to hear it from another hard working running mom.

Pam gets it. She wakes at an ungodly hour to get speed workouts and runs in as do I. She has to split her weekends with her husband so he can get runs in while simultaneously tackling kids sporting activities.

She was so nice, so down to earth. I really enjoyed our little chat while we were climbing up to Michigan Bluff.

When you get to the top of Michigan Bluff you have to walk down a fire road to get to the aid-station. Pam kept walking and while I wanted to keep chatting with her, I didn’t want to ditch Pigeon either so I stopped to wait for her.

When she got to the top, she had made a friend too. Her friend is doing her first Western States this year. I told Pigeon about my little hike with Pam Smith and Pigeon had no clue who Pam was but her friend did and was like, “Oh my gosh! I saw that! That’s so cool!” 🙂

We made it the aid-station and again, those darn potato chips really looked amazing. I saw Pam talking to some people and grabbing some fuel and then she was off. I never saw her again.

Pigeon and I ate and walked out of the aid-station happy. We were joking about all sorts of things. There were a lot of funny incidents on this run that I can’t remember. This is what happens when I don’t blog for a while and then have multiple posts to catch up on, I forget things. 🙂

I do know that before we started the run, Pigeon sprayed my legs with bug spray as we had remembered that last year the mosquitoes were relentless. Well, as it turns out, we forgot to spray our arms. My arms and back (remember I was wearing a tank top) are covered in about 20 mosquito bites! Grrrrr the ones on the back are the worst. Next year I am wearing one of those repellent bracelets.

There is one more descent after Michigan Bluff before you climb the paved road to Forresthill. That down hill trail again aggravated my knee something terrible but the minute we hit an uphill, all the pain goes away.

Pigeon and I hiked the hill back to Forresthill Road and then ran the road to the school. We had the wrist bands cut off made our way to my car to change before BOOM thunder was heard off in the distance and some rain started sprinkling again. Whew, we made it out of there just in time. I would not want to be out running in a thunder storm.

Once again, this run proved to be the highlight of my year. Yes I could have gone into it a little more prepared but I’ve been traveling quite a bit lately and have not had any time to get long runs in. That will change as I have a marathon coming up as well as pacing duties at Tahoe Rim Trail in July. It is good to know what my body can handle though.

Next year’s WS Training Run may be a whole different kind of run. Quite a few people that we know have qualified for the 2016 Western States so I foresee a big run next year hopefully filled with a lot of locals (lottery permitting).

For more of our WS Training Run stories go to the following links:

Our 2014 WS Run – The Trail of Dreams (WS Training Run)

Our 2010 WS Run – A Dream Come True (WS Training Run)

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma

February 17, 2015April 21, 2015

ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY – WS TRAINING RUN

Sorry, I had to throw that Great White song reference in the title as it has been stuck in my head since Saturday’s run. If you want to hear the song too click here.

Saturday was the first of the annual Western States Training Runs. While the ones in May are my absolute favorite, Saturday’s course is always an adventure and a good test of your legs and endurance.

Last year I drove up solo and hopped on the bus and ran with whomever I could find near me on the trail. It was a good but tough day mentally and physically.

This year Pigeon was able to join me. I know we were both pretty excited about this run!

The parking lot scene was really different this year. In years past it would get pretty crowded super fast and they had four school buses ready to bus us to the drop of point.

This year it wasn’t too crowded and they only had 3 buses. I didn’t mind. It meant easier parking and fewer lines. Regardless the day was gorgeous and we were looking at temperatures rising near 75 degrees come the middle of the day.

Pigeon and I knew from experience that we needed to get on the middle bus. The first bus you sort of assume are for the “fast” people. The ones carrying just one little bottle, no fuel and who plan to be done with their 20 something miles in no time at all. The last bus is usually reserved for the Folsom Lake Trail Running group. A great bunch of people but there is a lot of them and Pigeon and I like to position ourselves ahead of the crowd.

So this is where it gets funny. After Craig Thornley, the RD for Western States does his pre-race talks, it is sort of a mad dash for the bus. Pigeon and I were close so we hop onto the second/middle bus.

The bus fills up. They do their little talk about safety and what to do if you drop etc. The bus starts and then our bus waves the bus behind to go in front … so we are now on the last bus! Pigeon turned to me and goes, “What just happened?” I replied, “Um, it looks like we’re the last bus now.” 🙂 It was pretty funny and as it turns out, it was no big deal what so ever.

Pigeon and I got off the bus and just started running. I should mention that I did fall asleep briefly while on the hour-long bus ride. I can’t help it. You put me in a car when I have had little sleep and I will fall asleep almost instantly. Sorry Pigeon! 🙂

So we get off the bus and we take off down the gravel road following the yellow montrail ribbons. The views were gorgeous but sadly, I have still not figured out the best way to store my phone/camera to make it easily accessible. If had one complaint about my Jenny Vesta it is this, the front pockets are too small. My old camera is terrible so I don’t even bother bringing it any more. Plus, Vans may have been right all those years, I think I AM a little bit faster when I am not stopping to take photos. 🙂

Sadly, that makes for boring blog material which Pigeon has reminded me of time and time again yet mind you, it is her job to put the phone/camera back into my pack when I am done taking photos. Needless to say, this never ends well. She has troubles, I start laughing and well, the next thing you know, we’ve wasted about 10 minutes on the trail.

So for the majority of this run, I took zero photos. Pigeon was motoring and looking really strong. I was happy for her, she’s been working herself back into shape steadily and it is paying off. I felt okay. I was battling some low iron and energy this past week so I did not go into this run with super-duper high enthusiasm like I have in the past. Also, my left knee was tweaked a bit recently in a non running incident and it has been nagging at me ever since.

Still, I was having fun chasing Pigeon through the single track and all around the trails of Cool and Auburn. Like I have said, it was a gorgeous day. It was also getting warm, quite warm as the day was moving on. I felt like I was fueling pretty well but nothing I ate would settle my tummy. I just resigned myself to believe it was going to be one of those days. I am used to them, so no biggie. I just set my mind somewhere and try not to focus on it too much. I know I was quieter than normal but I don’t think even Pigeon realized how much I was battling internally with that unhappy tummy.

When we got to No Hands Bridge I was doing a little dance inside. I know this section well. No Hands to Robie Point and then old road back to Placer High School. This is what I consider the home-stretch. Which was good as the sun was starting to beat down on us.

We crossed No-Hands, hit the aid-station and smiled for some photos (thanks Joe McCladdie!).

We noticed that the trails were pretty crowded, not with runners but with hikers, families and even horses. The little water fall area that we always run through had a ton of people sitting in or around it trying to cool off from the heat. It can get pretty warm in the canyons if you don’t come prepared with enough water. I could tell a lot of these families were not prepared.

Pigeon and I ran through the water fall which cooled us off. Down the fire-road we ran. Like I said, there were other runners, hikers, little kids and people walking their dogs all around us. I say that because what I am about to explain next really took me by surprise.

The fire-road is about 4 to 5 feet wide. I was on the far left of the trail running behind Pigeon and to the left of us was a couple with two dogs. Â A woman was walking a little teenie tiny dog (on a leash) and her husband was walking a doberman pinscher (also on a leash).

As I passed the man and the doberman, the doberman lunged at me. I have pretty good reflexes and as I tried to turn my body from him, he growled and took a nice chomp at my hip/thigh area.
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I kind of faltered because it felt more like I was punched hard instead of bitten. Pigeon turned just as I was grabbing my side and fallingÂ over. “What the?! Did he just bite you!?” she said and all I could do was moanÂ yes. I was just in shock trying to figure out what the heck had just happened.

The husband grabbed the dog while the wife ran over to me to verify that I had been bitten. I showed her the bite mark and blood. It wasn’t horrible, but it did break the skin and draw blood. Pigeon took over. She took my phone from me and immediately started gathering the information from these people. Names, phone numbers etc.

As she was doing this and I was trying to clean the cutÂ with a wet wipe that Pigeon just happened to have in her pack, ANOTHER runner was bit by the SAME dog but on her arm! What the heck!???

This poor woman did not fare as well as I had. Her bite mark was deep. A true puncture and she was gushing blood. I had to give her my bandana to tie off her arm so it would stop bleeding. She gave me her information so that I could pass on the dog owners information later.

The dog getting “yelled at” – but you can see how populated the trail was right here.

I can’t say I was shaking. I wasn’t crying. I was just speechless for a while until we separated from them and then I was angry. Very angry. There were little children on this trail just feet away! The owners swore up and down that the dog has never done anything like this before but here he bit two people in a matter of minutes!

We still had about a mile and half to run to get out of the canyons and back to the finish area. My leg was throbbing and sore. The good news is that I stopped thinking about my stomach! We did a hike/run combo and caught up to the woman who was bitten in the arm. She seemed okay but was really hoping for a ride to the finish. She never got one. She ran/walked the whole way in with a small group making sure she was okay.

When we finished, Craig Thornley was right there and was concerned about the situation. He told me to make sure I had my shots and to double-check for sure that the dog had as well. All these years I have worried about running into bears and mountain lions and instead my first real incident is with a dog … on a leash.

Needless to say, I am super gun-shy about seeing any dogs on the trail right now. I called Vans as soon as I was done to explain why it was taking longer then I had expected.

While at the car changing out of our shoes the dog owner called me just to see how I was doing, to apologize again and to verify that their dog has had the proper shots.

Things could have been a lot worse. I was very lucky that the dog couldn’t get a good angle on me. I am happy that Pigeon was there to help me out and make sure that I had all the information that I needed. Be care out there when running, even if an animal is on a leash. Clearly this owner didn’t have a strong enough hold on his dog for him to bite two people.

When I got home from the run, I made sure to clean up well. We had lots to do the rest of the day! I couldn’t let a dog bite keep me down.

Vans took these cuties to get ice cream while I cleaned up

Then we went and saw TiggerT race her BMX bike!

Squeaker thought about it but was a bit scared by the big kids I think.

The weather has continued to be super nice lately. I feel terrible for all of you battling the snow and storms on the east coast. We are in a drought which is not good at all, but I can’t help but love the sunshine a little bit right now … it leads to some fun times.

Now it is taper time. This coming weekend I only need to run 10 to 12 and then next weekend it is race time! The inaugural Salmon Falls 50K will finally be here. I have a feeling it will be like one giant trail party because so many people are running it. Hopefully my bruise goes away by then (it is super tender). I consider myself super lucky. Lucky I didn’t have a more serious injury, lucky I have a great supportive running partner, lucky I live in a pretty awesome place with amazing trails and views. These are the things to remember.

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma

May 27, 2014April 21, 2015

THE TRAIL OF DREAMS (WS TRAINING RUN)

So in my last post I said I was excited for my run this weekend and boy was I ever! I went from being “ho-hum” about running this week to having a day on the trails where I do not think I stopped smiling for even one minute!

To back track, in 2010 I ran the Western States Training Run Day 1 (there are 3 full days) for the very first time. I called that post A DREAM COME TRUE (read it here). A lot has changed in just four years both for the runners (Pigeon and myself) as well as for the Western States Trail.

In the four years since we last ran this training run, Pigeon has excelled as an ultra runner. She is officially training for a 100 mile race (again) and I have run my second 50k and my second 50 miler in addition to quite a few marathons. When we ran this run in 2010, we were naive. We both had run one 50 mile race and pretty much signed up for this training run on a whim and decided we could handle it. We did but we were complete novices out on the trail climbing mountains that are pretty intense. While we finished in 2010 laughing the whole way, we had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into on that run.

With quite a bit more mileage under our belt, this time around would be a little different. We both have a lot more respect for this trail. In my mind, there is no better place to run than on this trail as it has a little bit of everything and if you are not careful, the trail can rule your day.

Pigeon and I carpooled to Foresthill Elementary School and checked in with the people putting on this run. We paid the fee to run this organized training run because that not only provides us three fully stocked aid-stations along the way it also goes towards restoration and maintenance of the trail itself.

In 2010 Pigeon and I rode the yellow school buses along with hundreds of others doing this run. This year, Pigeon coordinated with a friend to get us a ride to Robinson Flat so we could avoid the bus. The same ride in a bus takes an hour (and it is a curvy road with no shoulder) … in a car that ride took us a half an hour. That means we’d have a good jump on all the hundreds of other runners headed out for a long day out on the trail.

I agreed to the ride, although I admit I was a little bit worried when she told me who else was coming and the car we would be in Â (a Rav4). The numbers didn’t add up in my head. Where would I sit?

While I was sitting nice and ~~illegal~~ cosy in the back of the Rav4, I listened to everyone talk about their past 100 mile experiences whether in races or on training runs. The whole car was training for a 100 mile race whether it is Western States or Tahoe Rim … and then there was me, in the back. 🙂

When we arrived at Robinson Flat we all got out and stretched and used the facilities. In 2010 there was so much snow on the ground that we could not ride all they way to Robinson Flat. I had forgotten about that and quickly realized that the first 6 miles that I was about to run, I had never seen before!

The excitement started to grow. The girl who drove us was waiting for another person to arrive so Pigeon and I decided to follow some guys who had also avoided the buses and started our run. I didn’t know which way to go and Pigeon had a pretty good idea but we wanted to start out following someone just in case.

Once we left the camp ground and started on the trail following the yellow ribbons, I was in awe. At first we climbed a bit and were behind these guys who seemed equally excited to be out running. At one point they all stopped, not sure which way to go. One guy said he thought we should go right. I looked to my left and saw about 3 yellow ribbons so I said, “I think we go left, there are the ribbons.” Even Pigeon was thinking it was to the right. Luckily we went left. 🙂

Pigeon was cruising pretty fast. She was sticking close to the guys. While I was feeling fine, I could not pass what was before me! Every which way that I turned was the most amazing view I have ever seen!

I was slowly getting left behind because I kept stopping to take photos. I also knew we had a very long day ahead of us and I didn’t want to blow up my quads running down hill racing after the boys. Pigeon was on fire and sticking with them. Me? Nah, I’d rather have a photo op. 🙂

At one point I caught up to Pigeon and the terrible pacer that I am I made her stop. I reminded her that I had never been on this section before and that I was just blown away by the trail and the views … and then I made her take my picture. 🙂

I tucked the camera away (finally) and we kept on running. I knew that I had lots of photos from the second half of the run from 2010 so I needed to make sure I captured all that was before us on the first few miles.

My Jenny Vesta Hydration pack was FULL of fuel and water. I knew there would be aid along the way and mostly I was thinking I would only need water and maybe a few potatoes here and there at the aid-stations. I have been experimenting with my fuel lately and have been relying recently on ProBar products. I am more inclined to use real food instead of gels or chews but the ProBar Bolt chews have been working nicely as well as their ProBar Fuel bars. I prefer the bars most of the time.Â So when Pigeon stopped to find a tree, I had a snack and of course took another photo.

While we were running there would be the occasional runner who would catch up to us and chat for a bit. At one point, a guy who had originally missed the turn but heard us chatting off the trail, ran up behind us and thanked us because we had made him realize he had gone the wrong way. He joined us for a bit.

Now I have shared before that sometimes when Pigeon and I are off running deep in the woods, we will hear the occasional gun shot off in the distance. It sounds miles and miles away and is just the echo throughout the canyons that we generally hear. Not on this day. The three of us are running at one point I had looked down to my right and saw what looked to be a shotgun shell. My brain did a mental pause when all of a sudden we hear BAM! BAM! That wasn’t miles and miles off in the distance that sounded like it was just 15 feet away! The three of us jumped. BAM! again and we looked to our left. We couldn’t see the shooters but they felt way too incredibly close.

With our heart rates pumping, we just kept moving. We came across the first aid-station at Dusty Corners. I didn’t need anything really. I don’t recall what the heck I did at this aid-station other than fill one of my bottles with water.

The temps were definitely rising and in some sections it was down right hot. I felt good though. We just kept trucking along. I knew soon we would be coming to the long descent at Last Chance. It was this section in 2010 leading to Devil’s Thumb that I rolled my right ankle pretty severely and twisted my knee.

It is a very technical descent and the trail is covered in dry leaves so you can’t quite see what is underneath. Pigeon was not bombing the descent like she normally does so I was able to stick pretty close to her. All of a sudden I see her right toe get tripped up on a rock and what followed was in complete slow motion (for me, not sure about her). She trips and starts to fall forward and I go, “oh no!” and as I do, she rights herself almost catching herself from falling. However, out of no where it is as if gravity was pulling her and Pigeon just falls face first down the trail. Her hands didn’t pop out to protect her, at least not from my view but her arms were scrapped and she also ended up with a mouth full of dirt and her feet kicked back behind her like a scorpion’s tail. I did ask her if she was okay but my second question was “can I take a picture?” 🙂 She immediately snapped “no!” and popped up before I could even get my camera out of my pocket.

She had a few minor scrapes on her however we had quite a ways to go until we reached the bottom. Luckily there was a mini stream half way down and Pigeon was able to wash off some of the dirt and blood.

This fall took a lot out of Pigeon. When you fall on a trail run, it is more than just the injury or scrapes that you might end up with. You all of a sudden feel more exhausted than ever and your mind starts to play games with you. Thoughts like “oh, you must be tired” or “I fell because my legs are tired” start creeping into your brain. I was trying to not let Pigeon get down on herself about the fall because we were quickly approaching the toughest climb of the entire day, Devil’s Thumb.

Between Last Chance and Devil’s Thumb is a bridge called The Swinging Bridge. I posted about this in my 2010 post. It was old and scary but it thoroughly did its job of getting runners across the river. However, with the massive fires that this area had last year, this is all that is left of The Swinging Bridge …

Half of it is missing... — Half of it is missing…

Of course I completely forgot all about the bridge or the lack thereof. I had been watching the posts on Facebook over the weeks and I totally confused the construction of “the new bridge” as the replacement for the Swinging Bridge.

There was a new bridge on the trail, just not where I thought it was going to be.

So how were we going to get across the river? Not to worry! The Western States crew had thought of everything …

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Now the river doesn’t look that high in the photo but those men standing there to help us cross, were standing on rocks. In between those rocks, the water was almost up to our chest! I even asked one of the volunteers to take my photo because you know, I was still smiling.

That dip in the water was SO refreshing. It really cooled the body temperature down which was a good thing because the next item on our agenda was to tackle Devil’s Thumb.

I have only climbed “the thumb” once before. I’ve been to it a few times but the only other time that I actually hike up was back in 2010 with Pigeon. I remember it was tough and I remember going up switch back after switch back.

When we started the climb, Pigeon was leading as usual. I noticed she was getting more and more quiet but we were climbing and I know she was still thinking about that fall. I just stayed behind her and tried to offer some words of encouragement. Occasionally a few other runners would catch us and pass and I know that mentally, it bothered Pigeon. She’d ask to stop a few times and take a breather and that was totally fine with me. I didn’t want to tell her but I was feeling really good on the climb. Of course I was tired and of course my legs were burning, but overall, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other trying to make our way to the top. The top was very far away.

Looking up at the Thumb — Looking up The Thumb

If you look closely at the above photo, you will see little specs of people up the hill. Way up high, between those two trees, is a person and that person is barely half way up this climb. Devil’s Thumb is no joke and we were soaking wet from the chest down (yes, including wet socks and shoes). While it was nice to cool off, it didn’t last long as parts of the Thumb are exposed and as you can tell from above, pretty steep. It was also sad because you can see all the damage from the fires and how barren and charred the trail now looks.

It took a while but we made it. Pigeon had completely sucked her hydration pack dry and finished The Thumb with zero water. She didn’t tell me until we reached the top and I had plenty left in my pack so I handed her one of my bottles that had a few inches of water left. That is what training partners do.

The next aid station would be at the water pump, which the organizers called Deadwood because it is close to Deadwood Cemetery. When Pigeon and I stopped, she filled her pack and I filled my bottles and pack as well. We ate a few things from the aid-station and as we were leaving I asked Pigeon if she wanted to soak the bandanas we had around our neck. We’d stop at a few streams and soaked them along the way putting them on our necks to keep us cool but the pump water is COLD. It felt pretty awesome to soak those and have a nice cool cloth around our neck as we continued on our way toward Michigan Bluff.

The rest of the trail is the same section that we ran just two weeks ago. You can read about that run here and see the photos. It felt like we were on the home stretch and I was still feeling really well however, I knew that we’d soon be entering the El Dorado Creek Canyon and that massive descent which murdered my knees just two weeks prior.

Up until this point, my knees and been feeling pretty good. There were some sections where I would feel a twinge or two but nothing that ever prevented me from moving. El Dorado Creek Canyon leading to Michigan Bluff is a 5.5 mile descent. That is five miles running deeper and deeper into a canyon that doesn’t exactly scream smooth easy trail. It is rocky, technical at times and down right painful when you are battling an IT problem (Iliotibial band). Pigeon’s knee was bugging her from her earlier fall so she wasn’t flying way ahead of me like she had two weeks ago but she was moving a helluva lot faster than I was at times. Occasionally she’d stop and turn and would catch me winching in pain every other step. I may have been wincing, but I was still smiling!

When we got to the bottom, we crossed the bridge and started making our way back out of the canyon towards Michigan Bluff where we knew another aid-station was waiting for us.

As we were climbing, Pigeon started coming back to life. She had a little more pep in her step. Maybe she knew we were close, maybe she had overcome whatever it was that was bringing her down but she was back to her usual self.

As we climbed, we came across two guys who were sitting on the side of the trail. They were not together but they were probably 5 feet apart. One was dry heaving and the other looked like he was dizzy enough to pass out. Pigeon asked the first guy (Mr. Dizzy) if he had any salt on him. He said no and was kind of wish-washy about wanting to take one. I handed him two salt tabs and we told him to take them.

Then Pigeon moved on to the next guy who when she approached, about vomited at her feet. Knowing my feelings about this, she quickly turned to me and said “you may want to look that way for a bit!” 🙂 This guy had a girl with him and she was trying her best to encourage him. He said he wanted something solid, no more gels (who can blame him). I handed him my last granola bar (gluten free baby!). Pigeon also told him that I had ginger chews so she told me to give him one and I did and then I quickly ran back down to Mr. Dizzy and gave him a ginger chew too.

So at this point, we said good luck and continued our way up the hill. I had a gel left in my pack and I think one more package of ProBar Bolts but I was done with wanting any of that.

When we reached Michigan Bluff we were greeted by Ann TrasonÂ (SO COOL) manning the aid-station along with some other women. There were a lot of stragglers who were hovering around this aid-station. I wanted something solid and I quickly dove into some plain potato chips and even and a few pieces of a PayDay candy bar which I have not eaten since 2010. This was sort of a slow aid-station so I ended up filling up my pack myself which was totally fine, I wanted to be on our way.

Pigeon and I started walking and eating at the same time. We were heading to Bath Road which would be our final climb of the day.

I had completely blocked out the section leading to Bath Road. It was a bit up hill with some definite run-able sections. We were moving along at one point, when all of a sudden we hear BAM! I screamed and jumped a mile. Then BAM BAM! Again. These were not shot guns, this was a regular gun. Don’t ask me how I knew the difference, maybe it is too much TV but I could tell, this was more of a handgun than aÂ shot gun and the sound was coming from in front of us and not off to the side.

Pigeon, the girl we were running with and myself were pretty petrified. I pulled out the whistle that comes with my hydration pack and started blowing. Pigeon told me to keep blowing my whistle and the girl we were running with started yelling “hey!” at these people. We could see them and their gun off in the distance. They were standing over a cliff and we couldn’t tell what they were shooting at whether it was a target or if they were just shooting over the cliff. Whatever it was, it freaked me out and when they saw us (and heard sirens in the distance) they stopped shooting and started getting into their car.Â Well that sure made me run faster!

When we reached the bottom before our climb up to Bath Road, there was a stream. In 2010 it was much higher and we needed a rope to help us cross. Now, the stream is not so high but it was pretty darn crowded!

Everyone stopped to cool off in the stream — Apparently everyone got the memo to wear blue!

Pigeon and I once again used our bandanas to wipe off our faces and put them around our neck. Bath Road is paved and leads us to the Foresthill Elementary School and ultimately the finish. In 2010, Bath Road and I did not get along. I was done at that point, completely toast (mostly due to the ankle and knee pain I had) so this year, I had some unfinished business.

We didn’t run up the hill the way we did in 2010 but I do feel like I probably could have run portions of it which made me feel good inside that I had the energy and the mojo. Instead though, Pigeon and I just power hiked our way up the road.

We were joined by a group of 3 who were extremely chatty and trying to be funny. Some times they were and sometimes, not so much but it was still entertaining and we just rolled with it. When Pigeon and I reached the top and got to Foresthill Road, we started running and we ran ourselves all the way to the finish.

We’d done it. We completed the training run again! It felt good for me to be able to finish and not feel so completely depleted like I did in 2010.

The fourth and final aid-station at the end

This year I bypassed the massage tent and instead we went to my car and just tried to clean ourselves up and we hit the road home.

We laughed on the way home about how naive we were in 2010 trying to do this run with very little experience under our belts. That’s how you learn though. That is how you do it sometimes and while the outcome could have been much worse, Pigeon and I are strong runners and when we are together, we seem to be even stronger. We help each other out and we motivate each other when the time comes.

Now, two days later, I have to say, I feel great. While two weeks ago, when Pigeon and I ran in the same canyon, I could barely walk for 3 days straight. I was much kinder to myself when I got home after this run. The kids were in the pool so I stood in the pool too all the way up to my knees. I rolled my quads on the foam roller that night as well. The next day at work, I used The Stick to knock out any additional kinks that I was feeling in my quads. I feel amazing. Stronger.

It was a great day and I couldn’t be happier with myself despite the sour weeks I’ve had leading up to this run. It really is a matter of mindset sometimes. If you talk yourself out of something, you are destined to have a miserable time. Reading my old blog reminded me how much I love everything there is about the Western States trail. While I don’t need to race and be competitive, I am most content when I can just have an awesomely fun day out on the trails with my ultra running partner.

And coming home to two awesome kids and a hubby who fully supported me and this run, was pretty awesome too.

Finally, here are the stats for the day (edited to add: 32 miles inÂ 8 hours). Check out the elevation gain AND the elevation loss. Pretty crazy.

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma

(Edited to add: I hardly ever proof my posts before posting so please excuse the typos and terrible grammar. I do eventually go back and edit … eventually).

May 23, 2014April 21, 2015

GETTING EXCITED

Okay, for weeks now I have been “ho-hum” about running. We’ve just been in super busy mode with the Peanut’s new swim team practice schedule and work has been busy lately. The weather is turning nice outside and the last thing I want to do is be inside in an office all.day.long but, it pays the bills, particularly swim team bills.

BUT tomorrow, tomorrow is another legendary day for me! Tomorrow is Day 1 of the Western States Memorial Day Training Run. 32 miles on some pretty spectacular trails!

I did this run in 2010 and you can read about that by clicking here … I just re-read my post from that run and giggled my head off. It was a fun day, despite some aches and pains, I had a blast.

Now I would be completely lying if I didn’t say that I was totally dreading this weekend up until a few hours ago. I’ve been tired, exhausted and running around like a chicken with my head caught off mode for quite a while now. I even skipped my morning session at Breakout Fitness today because I wanted to have a few extra hours of sleep. It helped but I love my TRX.

I’ve also had some aches and pains and some pretty pathetic runs this week that all lead up to me just feeling pretty down and unenthused about Saturday’s run. Yet, it is a 3 day weekend and while I still work at the store on Sunday, I will have Monday off to be with my girls.

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As I was walking outside on my lunch hour (in this 96 degree heat), I realized I needed to change my attitude around. So I read my old post from 2010, and that was it. Now I am excited to run. While the heat is going to be pretty intense (they are calling for 100 degrees), it SHOULD be a great day.

I will be running with Pigeon again and this year we are doing things a little bit different (more on that AFTER the run). She’s in super training mode but she knows how much I like to have fun on the trails so I am sure there will be some laughter along the way.

It will be a long day for Vans and the girls too but I am sure they will keep him ~~busy~~ laughing too….

Happy Trails!

~Trailmomma

February 15, 2014April 21, 2015

WESTERN STATES TRAINING RUN 2014

The last time I did the Western States Training in February was in 2010. You can read about that run here. Four years and another kid later, I found myself driving to Placer High ready to load the little yellow school bus once again.

The night started off rough because I woke up and felt Squeaker kicking me in the back. Apparently she came into our bed in the middle of the night and I vaguely remember pulling her in next to me instead of taking her back to her bed like I normally do. I did that probably because I usually end up on her floor which is not comfortable.

My alarm went off and I got up and left the house. I knew I would be getting there early but I wanted a parking space in the lot and I kind of wanted to sit and think and sort of prepare myself for the run. You see, 20 years ago to the day, my mom passed away from a totally unexpected massive heart attack. I was sitting there pondering how odd it was that I am currently only 10 years younger than she was the day she passed, and I was about to run 20 something miles on the 20th anniversary of her passing. My heart filled with love and strength in that moment and I wanted to run this run today for her because her heart was not strong enough to carry her but mine is strong enough to carry us both.

I eventually got out of the nice warm car and ventured over to the check in. I ran into some old running pals that I have not seen in a long time. Then I ran into Coach Nikon and a few of the people I have been running with more recently. It is like one giant reunion when you go to this thing. I kind of felt like I was in high school again, migrating from group to group. When it came time for the course briefing, I found myself near Gold Country Girl.

We talked for a bit and then it was time to load the bus. She told me that the Folsom Lake Trail Runners were supposed to be on bus 4. When I ran this the last time, I think I was on bus one and I recall there was a reason but I couldn’t remember what it was and I was having a nice time talking to Boo and Gold Country Girl so I figured why not get on bus 4.

I sat with Gold Country Girl for the hour long bus ride and discovered she tends to get car sick. Great. Luckily she was okay on the ride and we had a nice time talking about kids, running and running shoes. 🙂

When we got to the drop off spot and unloaded the bus, everyone was gone. Everyone except bus 4. Now I recall why getting on the first bus was ideal. It was okay though. I wanted to make sure that I started out nice and easy so that I wouldn’t blow up like I did during the Way Too Cool Training Run a few weeks ago.

Down the rocky road we went just warming ourselves up and waiting for the “free to pee” spot. The first mile or so is down hill and then you start the conga line.

I just sort of stayed back of the pack. Then we all stopped to spread out and pee. It was sort of unnerving while running because we kept hearing gun fire off in the distance. As long as it sounded far enough away, it was okay.

When we stopped to pee we all took off a couple of layers as it was really starting to warm up. The sky was constantly overcast, never did the sun peak through but the temps were definitely warming albeit a little muggy too at times.

I normally change into a tank from long sleeves and today I didn’t – most of the time I wish I had but those last 5 miles I was kind of glad I had t-shirt.

I am not quite sure what the mileage was when we came to our first hill. I had moved from the back of the pack to behind Boo. When we arrived at the hill everyone stopped to hike. I hiked for a bit and then I just felt like running. I love hills so I started up and Boo jumped on my heels to follow but I think at some point she gave up. I heard a “Go Trailmomma!” from Boss (who is #173 in this photo)Â … I love hearing that while running. Boss was running with Lily and when I got to the top I heard “there’s my hill climber!” from a guy I will call Folsom Prison Roger since that is where I first met him (at a trail race on the Folsom Prison property, NOT the actual prison). However, a side note here is that I really wanted to nickname him Tommy Lee Jones because not only does he resemble him a little bit, he totally SOUNDS like him! It made me smile every time he said something.

Anyway, from that moment on, I tagged on the back of Folsom Prison Roger’s group which consisted of another guy and Crazy Helen. We ran that way for quite a while until we came to our very first stream crossing that was quite large in size. The whole group stopped to try and figure out how to navigate around it. When I reached them, I paused to see what they were doing and instead just ran right through the stream. I heard Folsom Prison Roger say in his Tommy Lee Jones voice “Now that is what I am talking about!” and he quickly followed me. It was just the two of us and a few strangers for quite a while on the single track sections.

Folsom Prison Roger kept telling people that I wanted to pass (I didn’t) but they’d move over and we’d be in front. Our pace wasn’t fast by any stretch, but we were just cruising along chatting the whole way. He was instructed to stop at the wooden bridge for a photo so when we reached that, we parted ways although I told him that I would no doubt see him again.

I was anxious for the aid-station at this point. I knew from 2010 that it was roughly at mile 13 but I couldn’t remember if there was a porta potty. Some how I didn’t recall there being one but I was hopeful. I had such a sloshy stomach towards the beginning of my run. I have had some tummy issues this past week and I could hear Pigeon in my head telling me to take a salt tab. So I did. It worked, the sloshy stomach passed but it only created another problem, hence my need to find a porta potty sooner rather than later.

When I reached the aid-station, I had to remove both my shoes as I had mountains of pebbles in them and I didn’t want to risk getting a blister like I had last weekend. Then I filled my flask bottle (I had one flask filled with water and one filled with coconut water) and was off hiking down the road. I ran into British Neal who is always nice to talk to and hiked with him for a while. Having never really talked in depth with him, we got off onto some rather funny topics, mainly the need to find bathrooms while trail running. Eventually, I had to say goodbye to Neal and instead climbed up an embankment to hike way back into the woods to take care of business. Sorry, but that is what happens when you trail run.

Back on the course, I was in business. I ran into Lily again and eventually caught up to Folsom Prison Roger and his crew. Once again, I tagged on the back of that group.

I was feeling great. I was fueling with my usual Picky Bar broken into pieces, water and some coconut water. My back, which has been quite sore lately was feeling pretty good. My feet, although a little achy, also felt well. I was happy and really felt like we were moving along.

The course through this stretch is absolutely beautiful. The views were also pretty spectacular but unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of those. 🙂

The run just seemed to be flying by compared to how I felt on this same stretch a few weeks ago. Before I knew it, we were at the Highway 49 crossing.
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We crossed Highway 49 with Folsom Prison Roger leading the way. Up we climbed towards Cool. All of a sudden, Folsom Prison Roger starts running up the hill. His running person Veronica gave him a hard time about running and I started gunning up and told him I was on his tail.

What started out as a joke turned into a cat and mouse chase that was pretty hilarious. Folsom Prison Roger and I were jamming up the hill with Veronica quick on our tail. When we reached the flat section we just kept going and then we hit the down hill section.

Pigeon usually flies down this section and I know a lot of people do. Folsom Prison Roger just took off like a bat out of hell and I tried so hard to keep up. I probably ran down faster then I ever have before. Veronica was behind me and told me she loves this section and I let her pass. I didn’t run into them again until the aid-station at No Hand Bridge.

I did however, run into about six horses (all at separate times) and had to pull off to the side to let them pass. Some of those encounters were pretty quick, as in I just crested a hill and there I was face to face with a horse. Luckily running with Pigeon has taught me a lot when it comes to approaching a horse.

When I reached No Hands Folsom Prison Roger and Veronica were just finishing up and heading out again. I don’t really need anything since I carry my own fuel so I quickly filled up my water flask and hopped on their tail again. I was getting to that point where I wanted to be done. I felt okay but the back was slowly beginning to ache and I knew that we were only 3 miles or so to the finish.

So the three of us ran towards Robie Point. The water fall here was really strong and flowing. It was beautiful!

There were lots of people out hiking and taking photos so we decided to stop in the middle of the water fall stream for another photo session too.

Veronica & Folsom Prison Roger aka Tommy Lee Jones

Soon we came to the Robie Point hill. The hike up this hill felt like a million miles long. When I ran this in 2010 I somehow had the strength and power to just run up this hill like it was no big thing. Not today. We did a combination of running and hiking but we eventually made it to the top.

The weather was really starting to change at this point. It was getting windy and it almost looked like the skies would open up and it would start dumping rain on us. It was at this point, that I was happy that I had a t-shirt and not a tank top.

Following the pavement back towards Placer High was rough. Your feet are soaking wet and heavy and the road is really uneven which is painful on already tired joints.

But we rounded the corner and saw the ladies sitting there ready to cut off our arm bands and declare that we had finished!

Immediately I hear “Heeeeeyyyy!” from a nicely bundled Coach Nikon sitting with his crew off to the side. I saw free massages happening so I quickly got in line but that proved to be a waste of time as the dude I had was pretty awful. The Peanut gave me a better massage when I got home.

I had finished. I was cold and wet but so incredibly happy. When I loaded my Garmin info into the computer when I got home I noticed a few things. According to time, I was 30 minutes slower then I was in 2010 but I also seemed to run a mile longer. I also stopped more on this run then I did on the previous one but on the previous one, I did spend time at the aid-stations.

Overall, I would definitely say I felt way better on this run than I did in 2010 which definitely makes me happier.

Today was also great because I ran it for my mom. I truly felt she was with me today running along side of me and enjoying some of the views. We take our health for granted and she is my reminder that I need to be healthy and active if I want to be here for my girls in 10 years.

I was almost 6 years old in that photo. My mom was about 36. Ironically, I am now 37 so that means she would be leaving me and this world 11 years from when that photo was taken. In those 11 years her body greatly changed. She didn’t exercise and her diet was just the Standard American Diet which didn’t help her high blood pressure.

I wish I knew then what I know now about diet and exercise. Maybe that was her role in this life: to be an example so that I would change my future and the future of my family by following through with a healthy lifestyle and exercising. I wish that wasn’t the case as I miss her a lot.

But she was with me today for 21 miles just as she is with me every day.

Happy Trails

~Trailmomma

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