Trans-Zion Female FKT and the BoSho Marathon.

On Sunday, April 21st Bethany ran 8:32:10 for the Trans-Zion route, running from the East entrance to Lee's Pass at the Kolob entrance.  This represents a 37 minute improvement on the previous record of 9:09 set by Krissy Moehl last year.   Above is a video compilation of the adventure with a new iPhone recorded banjo/mandolin composition by yours truly that I think can give you a better sense of the day than a narrative account.  This route is an approx. 48 mile spectacular and varied traverse (my GPS had us at 49.2 total) across the length of Zion National Park that in my experience is rivaled only by the Grand Canyon double crossing in terms of sheer beauty.  Bethany started at 7am at the East Entrance Trailhead.  I met her at the Grotto which she hit in 1:40, then making her way up the West Rim trail.  She hit the West Rim Trailhead at around 4:30 flat where we had stashed some resupplies (water jugs, some gels).  Hop Valley Trailhead at approx. 6:00 flat.  Bethany ran smoothly and controlled throughout without any major lows despite temps reaching 80 degrees mid-day and getting pretty low on fluids over the last 5 miles.  Although I myself only ran the last approx. 38 miles with her I was pretty worked and dehydrated by the end.  Yep, she's pretty tough...

In other (and less exciting) news, I won the BoSho marathon the weekend prior in 3:54, having been back running for 7 weeks.  This is a classic local event on the trails I regularly train on (a robust 6,800ft of elevation gain over the 26.2 miles) and I was psyched to take part and to put down a solid aerobic effort - even the first 30 minutes of which exceeded anything I've done in the past 6 months in terms of intensity - without injury (knock on wood).  Full results here.

CPT

Ardent fans of the blog LEWIS! (1) will clearly recall that April 1st marks A Day For New Beginnings, A Day for Chocolate Peanut Butter Treat.  See this former post for recipe and details.  In sum, Chocolate Peanut Butter Treat (CPT) TM is an amazing product that has taken the sport of trail running to levels heretofore unseen.  The complexity involved in repetitively putting one foot in front of the other in slow, shuffling fashion calls for not only wicking, wind-proof, maximally-minimal, reflective, minimally-maximal, inordinately-expensive gear and footwear but complicated nutritional strategies that are multifaceted, multimodal, and metabolically multidimensional.   CPT's TM  unique and patented formulation of chocolate (any kind), peanut butter (crunchy), and oats (optional) (2) delivers a precise balance of sugar and fat that catapults your aerobic performance to new levels- whether that be ultrarunning or 'shoeing.   It's been 9 years of consuming this game-changing endurance food on a daily to twice daily basis with middling results and I'm happy to announce that I've been selected this year to represent Chocolate Peanut Butter Treat Corporation (CPT) TM as a sponsored athlete.

Testimonials:

Ben- "I've put on 7-8 lbs since I started regularly incorporating CPTTM into my diet and have only gotten slightly slower over this period of time.  Thanks CPTTM !"

Bethany- "It seems like every time I turn around my husband is eating this stuff.  I don't really understand it."

The Illustrious Bob Simmons- "Ben made me try this one time.  It was OK I guess.  It kind of tasted like peanut butter."

Burt Reynolds- "What?"

                                                                                                                             

                                                                                     (1) All 3 of you.

                                                                                     (2) Extra butter and salt formulations available.

Burt Reynolds, ultrarunner, CPT consumer.

Wire descent.

Barkley training: Jared with splinters in his eyeball. CPT deficiency.

Antelope Island.

Descent off Twins (shoreline)

Wire Wednesday with Chad, Bethany, Pete, Matt.

AM on Wire with Erik, Greg, Pete, Jason

'Shoeing

The great thing about snowshoe running is that you get all the aerobic benefits of climbing as you would on backcountry ski gear but then, rather than float effortlessly and aesthetically down a slope making buttery powder turns you can slowly and laboriously trudge backwards in your own plunging steps maintaining a heaving and lactate-inducing aerobic effort.

It seems that even owning a pair of snowshoes in this ski-driven athletic climate provokes scoffs and commentary.

Which is why I've made it my new mission to promote 'shoeing with every forthcoming blog post, regardless of season or snow.  Come summer I plan on adhering some rubber tips onto the teeth of my Atlas running showshoes so as to continue enjoying the multitude of advantages to be had.

 'SHOE!

Red Pine Portrait

Aesthetic Inversion.

Turtleneck.

Neat snow, Lookout Peak.

Foothills.

Mt. Wire descent.

Neat snow.

Frosty.

Above Desolation Lake.

Mill D.

Beautiful day.

Red blob?

Ashokan Farewell.

Zion Traverse 2012

This past weekend I traveled down to Zion NP with Jason Thompson, Pete Stoughton, Matt Hart, Meghan Hicks, and Brian Kamm to run the stunning 48 mile Zion traverse (total was slightly over 50 miles for us given a couple scenic detours).  We ran west to east, from Lee's Pass in Kolob to the East Rim.   There was no rush: the priority for the day was just enjoying the terrain and the company and, as such, we started in the dark and finished in the dark. Thanks to Jay Aldous' generosity we stayed in style in a luxury suite just outside of the park which was a much preferable situation post-run to camping in the cold.  Here's a video of our adventure (soundtrack is another LEWIS! composition: guitar and banjo recorded on my iPhone).

Updates: TNF 50 and Tumbledown.

This weekend Bethany is running The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile championships and I'm headed out to San Francisco to pace her.   She's as fit as I've ever seen her so watch out!  You can find pre-race predictions courtesy of the folks at iRunFar.  

You can find my dad's annual Health Benefits of Running newsletter on TOR, telomeres, and more on The Matt Hart's blog.

Here are some recent photos and a video I made several weeks ago while in Maine of a run in the Tumbledown Range, one of my favorite places in the world.  I wrote and recorded the soundtrack using my mom's Irish harp and my iPhone.

Maine trail.  Dad, Russ, Zoe.  Hunting season.

Mt. Wire.

Neat log.

Our fair city.

Off desolation trail.

Tracy Aviary.

Twin Peaks wilderness

Running and Banjo

For your viewing pleasure.  Showcasing some running clips over the past year as well as my 2 week old banjo skills

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfSzngDKI3g&feature=plcp

the soon-to-be-past

The Wasatch 100 has come and gone, the aspen are blazing, my daughter is somehow 2 years old, and the LEWIS! family has returned to the routine of being productive working members of society after what has been a blissful summer of playing.  While this latter has its pros and cons, the implications of the former- namely it being autumn- are indisputably grand.  The cooler mornings, the angle of the light, the imminence of winter's stillness: all climatologic reminders of  impermanence and transition.  This must be the feeling of living in the present moment.  A heady awareness -almost by the minute- of change, a peculiar dislocated nostalgia, not directed towards the past but somehow towards what you are experiencing right now.  The appreciation of the soon-to-be-past.  

Running has been a casual and relaxed affair in the last several weeks characterized by lingering musculotendinous tweaks but little reason to devote much concern or worry without any big events on the immediate horizon.  I've lazed about and read some books.  I bought a bottle of good whisky.  I may just learn the banjo.   From a running standpoint the highlight of course has been pacing The Matt Hart over the last 25 miles of the Bear 100 last weekend to an impressive 3rd place finish in 19:29 through the still woods of the Bear River range. This was the capstone to an inspirational triumvirate of pacing duties for yours truly this past summer: Erik in the Millwood 100, then Jared at Hardrock, then Matt at the Bear- all heroes of mine in the world of endurance suffer-fests.

Chris, Peter, Matt, aspen.

Chris and Peter on Gobblers Knob

Squid cake.

Matt, Me, Chris up from Porter Fork.

New bike.

The view from my runs since I've started work.

at Beaver Mountain crewing for Matt

Headed up Lookout Peak.