Tahoe Rim Trail 165-Mile Speed Record Itenerary

Well, here it is--my proposed TRT165 itinerary. Note: Pacers and trail angels welsome -- see note at the end of this post!
I plan to start at a non-conventional place (between the two Kingsbury trailheads on the Kingsbury Grade) at 4 p.m. on Friday, August 15th and hope to finish about two days later with about two hours of rest en route.
Lake Tahoe Marathon RD, Les Wright, has graciously offered to keep track of the time at the start and finish, and I am looking forward to running some sections with Michael, Hao, and other running friends.

The start and Finish (Kingsbury Grade and N. Benjamin)

Of course, I'll go out there to have fun as well and I'll be happy to just finish this one. Basically, my (prioritized) aims are as follows:

1. Break the record (45:58)
2. Break 48 Hours
3. Break 66 hours (second-fastest recorded time?) -- Let me know if you know of a faster time
   
4. Finish, period!
   

Here are my proposed section times and so on:

Station	Name	CummMiles	Leg Miles	Section Time	Section Pace	Time of Day/Night Estimate	Cum Time Estimate	Miles to Next Aid
	Start	0	0	0	0	4:00 PM	0	1
1	Kingsbury South TrailHead	1	1	0:10:00	10:00	16:10	0:10	13.7
2	Armstrong Pass	14.7	13.7	2:45:00	12:03	18:55	2:55	5.1
3	Tucker Flat	19.8	5.1	1:10:00	13:44	20:05	4:05	4.4
4	Big Meadow Trailhead	24.2	4.4	0:45:00	10:14	20:50	4:50	0.1
5	BREAK -10	24.3	0.1	0:10:00	40:00	21:00	5:00	15.2
6	Echo Summit Trailhead	39.5	15.2	3:40:00	14:28	0:40	8:40	2.2
7	Echo Lakes Trailhead	41.7	2.2	0:22:00	10:00	1:02 AM	9:02	0.1
8	BREAK - 15	41.8	0.1	0:15:00	30:00	1:17 AM	9:17	15.2
9	Bayview Trail Junction	57	15.2	3:45:00	14:48	5:02 AM	13:02	12.8
10	Miller Lake Jeep Road	69.8	12.8	3:05:00	14:27	8:07 AM	16:07	4.4
11	Barker Pass Trailhead	74.2	4.4	1:10:00	15:55	9:17 AM	17:17	0.1
12	BREAK - 20	74.3	0.1	0:20:00	20:00	9:37 AM	17:37	11.4
13	Ward Creek	85.7	11.4	3:00:00	15:47	12:37 PM	20:37	5.2
14	Tahoe City Trailhead - 1	90.9	5.2	1:20:00	15:23	1:57 PM	21:57	0.3
15	Tahoe City Trailhead -2	91.2	0.3	0:05:00	16:40	2:02 PM	22:02	0.1
16	BREAK -15	91.3	0.1	0:15:00	30:00	2:17 PM	22:17	3
17	Access Road	94.3	3	1:05:00	21:40	3:22 PM	23:22	13
18	Road Crossing (267)	107.3	13	3:05:00	14:14	6:27 PM	2:27	3.1
19	Brockway Summit Trailhead	110.4	3.1	0:50:00	16:08	7:17 PM	3:17	0.1
20	BREAK – 25	110.5	0.1	0:25:00	10:00	7:42 PM	3:42	4.3
21	Martis Peak Rd	114.8	4.3	1:40:00	23:15	9:22 PM	5:22	12
22	Mt Rose Trail Jct	126.8	12	4:00:00	20:00	1:22 AM	9:22	2.6
23	Tahoe Meadows Trailhead	129.4	2.6	0:45:00	17:18	2:07 AM	10:07	0.1
24	BREAK - 20	129.5	0.1	0:20:00	20:00	2:27 AM	34:27	9.1
25	Tunnel Creek Trail Junction	138.6	9.1	2:15:00	14:50	4:42 AM	36:42
26	Spooner South Trailhead	152.5	13.9	4:40:00	20:09	9:22 AM	41:22
	BREAK - 15	152.6	0.1	0:15:00	30:00	9:37 AM	41:37
27	Kingsbury Norh Trailhead	165.6	13	3:50:00	17:42	1:27 PM	45:27
28	FINISH!	168	2.4	0:25:00	10:25	1:52 PM	45:52

Pacers and Trail Angels Welcome!
I will have my trusted crew (Chris, Rebecca, Grant, and Marie) waiting for me at the major trailheads and a few ultrarunners have already offered to pace me, but there is definitely still room for more pacers and trail angels.
Of course, you can also just come out to one of the trailheads at the posted times, pull up a chair, and watch me suffer!
Seriously though, even a three or five mile hike to supply some water would be a huge help, so contact me if you have some time (e-mail my name without spaces or periods at yahoo dot com, or post a comment on this blog.)

Fun at the Tahoe Relay

Fun at the Lake Tahoe Relay!

On Saturday, Chris, Amber, Turi, Sean, Rocky, Hayes, and I had a real blast at the 44th annual Tahoe Relay. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, check out my (Animoto) movie located at http://runlaketahoe.blogspot.com/2008/06/fun-at-tahoe-relay.html

With Tahoe Triple's Angel

Highlights of the 2008 Tahoe Relay:

• Chris Badolato and his wife kindly let us sleep at their house the night before, complete with dinner and movie.
• Hayes ran a great first leg
• I surprised myself by running from Zephyr Cove to Spooner Summit in 63 minutes
• Rocky gutted out 10.3 miles despite many blisters and Sean pushed through for 10.6 miles, despite the super-hot temperatures (I could not have been prouder of these kids!)
  
• It was great to finally meet Turi and Amber in person
• Beautiful vistas
• Getting a new appreciation for crewing by being on the other side of it for a change
  
• Dinner with the other Sierra Trailblazers

I Definitely want to do this again next year!

Times/Pace:
Hayes 1:21:26 (9.6) -- 8:30
Peter 1:03:01 (8.2) -- 7:41
Rocky 2:10:34 (10.3) -- 12:41
Turi 1:38:15 (12.3+) -- 7:50
Sean 2:09:56 (10.6) -- 12:16
Chris 1:13:05 (10.5) -- 6:57
Amber 1:58:43 (10.5) -- 11:18

Next up:
The Oracle 5K (I might have to bandit this one) and then we're off to Holland!

Five Tag Questions

My friend Rajeev tagged me, so here are my answers to the five questions...

1. How would you describe your running ten years ago?
Ten years ago, I was still working on increasing my weight to the point where I felt I had to do something about it. A healthy appetite combined with lots of sedentary computer work caused me to be well over 215 pounds (I'm 175 now) I started running to change that around about nine years ago, starting with 5K and 10K runs and loved it. I ran my first marathon (Big Sur) in 2004, followed by the Tahoe Triple that same year. Once I discovered ultras, I was hooked.

2. What is your best and worst race experience?
Best: Winning the Tahoe Super Triple in 2006
Worst: Running Lake of the Sky in 2007 (after having run almost 200 race miles in crazy conditions in the previous two weeks). It was a very well organized race on a beautiful section of trail, but it was rough from the start.

Oh, and... Ask me that question again on August 17th ;-)

3. Why do you run?
I still run to stay in shape, but it's now become an integral part of my life. I like to have a goal to train for. I also really like the camaraderie at the ultra races.

4. What is the best or worst piece of advice you've been given about running?
Best: "Go do it" (Tim Twietmeyer)
Worst: A lot of people say "too much running can't be good for you," but my friend Craig said it best when he said "It might be good for your soul, but for your body....I don't know!"
Well, I would argue that [the soul] is exactly what it's all about!

5. Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
I walked 1000 kilometers with my dad in 5 weeks when I was about 12 years old. I guess that was some early preparation for ultrarunning later in life...

Now tagging:

• Kelly Ridgway
• Michael Kanning (Not sure if he was even walking ten years ago ;-) )

A Nice Training Run at the Auburn Trail 50K

At the Start With Fellow Speedgoat Kelly Ridgway

The day before I left, Michael Kanning summarized my run as "Heading out for a jog at the Auburn Trail 50K to train for his TRT165 this August" and that is exactly what I did while Michael was running the San Diego 100-Miler. Note: I will post my complete TRT165 itinerary very soon.

The Cool Fire Station (Race Start and Finish)

The course started at the Cool Fire Station and was a combination of the 9-mile Olmstead loop and a trail that went from Cool to No Hands Bridge and back on the Western States trail. The complete course would be repeated twice after a seven-mile mini loop on the Olmstead trail.

I was shooting for a consistent 10-minute mile average pace, but not having run this course before, I just wanted to focus on running a sustainable and consistent pace the entire way and that worked out really well. The course was a little long (32+ miles) and there was one tough hill, nicknamed K2, which forced everyone to walk.

With Frank Plucker

I gave my friend Frank Plucker a ride to the start and saw many familiar faces there. I met up with fellow speedgoat Kelly Ridgway, who would finish as the second-place female (8th overall). I also met Gretchen, who is preparing for TRT100 and a very fit-looking Sean Lang. Austin Violette had also decided to come out for this run. Many were treating this as their final Western States training run, including Alan and Beverly Abbs.

I decided to hold back a bit in the beginning and tried to stay in about 8th to 10th place for the first 15 miles or so. The first loop was nice and cool and we completed the first seven miles in about an hour.

I paced for several miles with Bev Anderson Abbs, who was running fast despite having a pain in her knee. She had brought a set of trekking poles to ease the pain on the downhills. Incredibly, she finished in third place overall and won the women's race in 5:03. My 5:10 (6th overall) finishing time will probably be the closest I'll ever finish behind Bev :)

Gretchen and Kelly Discuss TRT Before the Start

The ascent of K2 forced almost all the runners to walk, but Sean Lang bounded up the hill like a Gazelle and was out of sight after a few minutes, never to be seen again. Imagine my surprise to see him finish 20 minutes behind me! It turned out he rolled his ankle on one of the steep downhill sections and I must have passed him somewhere without noticing.

Sean "K2" Lang--Ready to Go

During the second loop, it really started heating up. I caught golden-glove boxer Ray Sanchez (training for the Badwater 135) with 9 miles to go, but he pulled away from me again on the second K2 ascent and hung on to his lead until the finish.

Running on the Olmstead loop brought back lots of memories from last year' 12 Hours at Cool Night Run and I must say, I'd rather run this loop at night than in the 90-degree heat.

Robert and Linda had cooked another excellent post-race meal, but I could not stay too long, because I had to rush back to see Sean and Rocky in concert (cello and piano respectively) at a 3 p.m. concert. I made it back just in time and what a great concert it was! Sean played a solo piece and a piece with a trio, and Rocky played one of his own compositions for the first time along with two other pieces.

Many thanks to Robert and Linda Mathis for the excellent race, to Norm and Helen for running the half-way aid station and to all the other volunteers.

Next up: The Tahoe Relay, a fun run around my favorite lake with the Sean, Rocky, Hayes, Chris, Turi, and Amber a.k.a "Lubbers and the Melodious Colons."