Jon Roig.com News Feed

I both won / didn't win the Tempe Mad Mud Run... and then somehow won

2008-05-05T00:00:00Z

I came in first! That counts... right?

Let me say this right off the bat -- this was not the best organized race I've ever done. The folks behind the race, Sierra Adventures, are mostly an adventure sports events company, so this was their first foray into a running event. And it showed.

Two weird things happened. First, I pretty much duked it out with some highschool cross country kid for the lead spot in the race. Now... did I expect to win? Of course not... I mean, not only am I not that fast to begin with, I just race a 50 mile race a week ago... So, it surprised the hell out of me when all of a sudden we were some huge distance ahead of the next runner.

Now, we were kicking ass, don't get me wrong, but I guess we missed a turn somewhere and, given that this was an obstacle course, we came across some roller type things with arrows that more or less matched the official race markings. (The few that we'd seen...) So... we did the natural thing and followed the arrows over the rollers and proceeded appropriately.

It turns out that the rollers had nothing to do with the race at all -- they were just a bunch of random tubes with the same color arrows out on a poorly marked course filled with obstacles.

Right. Obviously, it seemed weird that were so far ahead, but we proceeded through that and a small assortment of other obstacles, including a wall to climb, a mud pit, some over / under hurdles, some hay bales, and a balance beam... actually, that balance beam was really challenging. Going from a run to having to balance... not easy. And I don't wanna sound too harsh here to the organizers -- they did a good job with a couple of good obstacles, given what they had to work with.

By the time we get through the mud, the cross country kid is well ahead of me... I'm following his muddy footprints towards the finish, since there aren't any course markers. Somewhere between the last obstacle and the finish, the kid gets totally lost, and I somehow finish first.

Now... that's kind of a hollow victory. 'Course, almost immediately after my victory, I was informed of my penalty for cheating / course cutting and that I'd be penalized 10 minutes... whatevah! (They didn't even have a clock up, so I didn't see my official time anyway...)

What do you do after that? Stick around for the awards? They were outta cups, so even getting an after-race drink was kinda challenging.

Bumped knuckles with the cross country kid -- who was actually pretty upset about the situation... Chatted with a couple of the other runners for a little while, watched people steam in over the finish, covered in mud... went out and grabbed some breakfast.

Overall, I'd give this event a 3/5... totally fun and definitely a a great idea, just not really well executed. I'm looking forward to seeing where the folks behind the race take it...

Update: According to a friend of a friend who stuck around for the ceremonies, I was announced as the winner... which makes that literally the only thing I've ever won ever. We're not just talking races... the only thing I've ever won of any kind. We'll credit this victory to age and guile. (Yeah....)

Ouch! Zane Grey 50 Miler Race Report

2008-04-27T00:00:00Z

"Uh... I was promised there would be rocks on the trail... "

Total insanity... that's how I'd describe the Zane Grey. The advance reports mentioned rocks, trees across the trail, creek crossings... and boy, they were right. Now, to be fair, the race does bill itself as "America's Toughest 50 Miler."

As far as I'm concerned, it delivered...

Now... before plunging into this at 5:00 am on Saturday morning, I'd asked myself, "What is it, exactly, that makes a race like this so much more difficult than other races of this distance?"

It's the friggin' rocks. They never end. At no point on the trail can you just relax, really, and take in the beauty of Northern Arizona. The trail itself is in pretty rough shape, and you really had to keep your wits about you the whole time. Aid stations are up to 11 miles apart over rough and confusing groud. Navigation was an issue and got lost for a moment at the beginning of the race, but ultimately I did ok on that front, mostly by hitching in behind folks who looked like they knew what they were doing.

Not a race for beginners, but just really, really fun. I met all kinds of cool folks, saw all kinds of random people I've seen around the running scene. One of the cool things about a race of this distance is how you can really hang with another runner for hours and just kinda chat about the world and whatnot -- without their help, I wouldn't have had a clue how to pace myself on a course like that.

There are a surprising number of people who do Badwater... and all kinds of other crazy races.

Dinner the night before was rad. I got to hang out with a whole bunch of super athlete women down from Colorado, including the 5 time winner of Hardrock, Betsy Kalmeyer... caught a glimpse of Anton Krupicka, that dude was the talk of the race. He's just a beast, speed-wise.

I'd love to see how he handled all that technical running. I mean... according to someone at the finish line, he did it in 8:02... which is just really fast.

My ankles really took some serious punishment -- my left one is still a bit swollen... and the blisters, they're remarkable. (Remind me to do something about the relative looseness of my shoes.) I'm covered with tiny little cuts from all the random grass and bushes and whatever that I plunged through. Took one minor fall... not serious, but enough to wake me up.

So... yeah! Finished well under the cutoff in 13:something... (I wasn't really paying that close of attention at that point.) Official results will be out shortly... hopefully with splits.

Most of the run felt really good and consistent, again, mostly due to the help of some awesome folks who let me tag along. That was a diabolically evil last 10k. I just kinda walked it in as quickly as I could, pretty much wincing and whining the whole time. I started to get that puky feeling I get sometimes... I'm not sure if I just neglected nutrition a little too much or what, but something went awry there.

Today... one day later... I feel like I've been run the ringer a bit, but I'm up and around, feeling ok. (...And off to lunch in the Roffler household for recovery...)

Update: According to the official results, I finished in 13:55:05... which seems a little weird, given that I says I finished at the same second as someone else. I didn't see anyone out there at all for the last hour or so, so I'm not sure what to make of it... but really, it's all good.

The Dog Runs 4.2 Miles in 29 Minutes! (Pat's Run, Tempe)

2008-04-19T00:00:00Z

"I'm gonna be pissed if that dog beats me," I heard someone say in the starting area of Pat's Run Tempe, the annual run to honor Pat Tillman. Well... I hope ya get over it, buddy, 'cuz that dog kicked your ass!

Now... that race was just silly. 4.2 miles is an unusual distance for a race -- Tillman was number 42 when he played in the NFL -- but since it was right in my neighborhood, I figured I'd drop by. No doubt I could do it faster by myself, but to mix it up a bit, I resolved to sneak the dog into the race, see what he could do at that kind of distance.

As it turns out, dogs were totally welcome, which totally reduces the pirate appeal. As far as I can tell, though, I was the only person to bring the dog into the runners area.

I did employ a bit of strategy. See... we got up early and jogged at a comfortable pace down to the Marina to kind of loosen up a bit. I figured that if I let the dog swim in Tempe Town Lake a bit, he'd stay cool enough that I wouldn't really have to worry about water for him out on the course.

A good idea, I think... but I hadn't really counted on what would happen when I brought a soaking wet dog into the overcrowded starting area of the race. To be fair, the dog did quite well... he's not really freaked out by crowds, so he totally kept his cool in amidst all the runners towards the front of the line. The other runners seemed bemused when he bumped into them, all moist and whatnot.

Needless to say, with a race this short and a crowd this big, the start was just chaos. Again, all this time spent running with the dog really paid off -- he was totally on the ball, sticking next to me as we wove our way through the crowds for the first mile or so. I don't think we inadvertently cut anyone off... although if we did, we certainly weren't any worse than all those fools who clogged up the course for the first mile.

Things started to thin out a bit when we hit the Curry hill, but since this is totally our home turf, we tackled it just fine, accelerating the whole way, passing all kinds of people who were starting to fall apart. The water station at mile 2 had a kiddy pool set up for dog water... how cool is that? Worked perfect to refresh the mutt, although my pre-soak plan seemed to work and he was doing just fine.

Gus is more of a distance runner than anything: he doesn't like to set a pace too fast, so by the time I was trying to pick up the speed and wrap it up at mile 3, he was pretty settled into a reasonably slow pace. It's cool, though... we were moving along just fine... and to be fair, he didn't really know how far we were going. He can usually get a good kick going on the last few blocks from our house, but running into a stadium, that's something different.

The other runners seemed a little alarmed to get passed by a dog. 'Course, along the way, people were yelling stuff like, "Go Cujo!"... or... towards the end, "Awww... poor puppy."

We rolled across the finish line as the clock ticked over to 29:00 exactly... totally respectable, I think. The guy at the finish said, "First Labrador!" and I'm pretty sure I beat everyone else out there with a dog.... so I've got that going for me. Which is good. I certainly didn't see anyone else running with one a dog...

I'm not sure if I'll get an official time since I signed up too late to be issued a timing chip... but really, who cares?

UPDATE 4-22: Perry, the race director of both this race and Zane Grey, was kind enough to insert my time into the official records. So, officially, Gus 'n' I finished 159th out of 7442 runners.

I did the IronMan AZ...

2008-04-15T00:00:00Z

... as a volunteer. Ha!

Actually... it was super fun.

First of all, if you've never seen the start of an Ironman, it's worth checking out. 2000 people all treading water in Tempe Town Lake, all waiting to begin the 2.4 mile swim.

I was manning the transition area. So... when all the athletes hopped out of the lake, they stopped by our area to grab their bags and head out to the bike portion. Since they all finish in a relatively tight group, it was total chaos. Well... at least partial chaos. We had everything in order and got people out and on their way pretty quick.

From there, I helped out a bit with the cleanup, then headed home for a nice, long midafternoon nap.

I returned at 6:00 pm to help people retrieve their stuff from the transition area. Of course, I'm trying to satisfy my requirements to get into the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 this summer, so even though I volunteered at the MadDog 50k and the Pemberton 50k, picking up an even 12 hours at this event seemed like the way to go... just easier.

For awhile, I got to work "security" for the transition entrance, then I just helped the athletes / family members grab the transition bags once they'd finished. Met a ton of awesome people who were both athletes and volunteers... just a really, really great way to spend a day.

Of course... now I'm sold on the idea of doing one of these things. It is right in my neighborhood and all, so it's kinda tough to resist.

I still have to figure out how to sign up for the race in November 2009. 'Course, I'll have to get a bike and whatnot, but I'll sort all that out after the 100 miler.

OficePoltergeist, the Firefox Extension: The Next Generation

2008-03-31T00:00:00Z

This is a Poltergeist!

Turn your web browser into a web server... of terror! OfficePoltergeist is a prank extension for firefox which allows you to: play spooky sounds, load new web pages, make windows shake, send popup alert messages, and replace any given word on a web page with whatever you want.

This is the long awaited updated version which actually works with the current generation of Firefox browsers.

I ran 228.42 miles in March!

2008-03-31T00:00:00Z

As preparation for the Zane Gray 50 miler, I've been stepping up the mileage considerably, to steel myself for the brutality to come. With about a month to go, things are starting to get... interesting.

Did a solid 4.5 hours out on South Mountain yesterday which took me from Pima Canyon down Desert Classic, up the hill at Telegraph and then up and up and up from there. At the 2:30 point, I turned around, and just came right back down National... total distance is unknown, but I'm giving myself credit for 25 miles. Not setting any speed records, I've gotta tell you, it felt really, really good. (Lord knows it doesn't always...)

The training has been relentless. In an effort to be somewhat scientific about this, I've actually been logging my runs at runnerplus.com/people/ph00dz.

It's kinda neat to see 'em all laid out like that. I covered 228.42 miles in March... which, for me, is pretty remarkable. On my off days I've been swimming pretty consistently -- it's a trick I picked up fairly recently and it seems to work well for recovery.

That dog of mine... he's been doing 30-40 miles a week with me without showing any signs of slowing down. He loves it... although water is starting to get to be a factor. (He gobbled down almost 60 ounces of water on our 10 miler this weekend.)

Other than running, life is good. The weather is perfect in AZ... Eating really well, getting out to see some good shows, including Limbeck, kind of an Americana / Alt-Country type band, over at Modified... Hadn't heard them before, but they were really fantastic. Also awesome: Blitzen Trapper, also at Modified. Fleet Foxes opened... they're a pretty talented bunch of youngsters. I am loving the Lost Leaf as a between band watering hole.

Finally, the funniest thing I've heard in awhile: a conversation between Gregor Samsa (Kafka, the Metamorphosis) and Dr. Seuss about his current condition. David Rakoff plays Dr. S.

Running with Scisssors Video

2008-03-21T00:00:00Z

... pretty silly!

Running With Scissors Runs 182 Miles in 28:52:59!

2008-03-03T00:00:00Z

My teammates from Van 1: Megan, Rae, Me, Amanda, Amy, and Dave

... Good enough to secure 109th Place in the Ragnar Del Sol, a relay race which took us from Wickenburg to Mesa, all around the edge of the Valley. Which is to say, our team kicked ass!

So... here's how it works. Take a team of twelve people, divide 'em up into two groups of six, and put 'em in vans. Van One -- which is where I was -- started out in Wickenburg at 1:00 pm. Starting times were based on expected finishing time... faster teams, like the Fast Running Blog / St. George Running Center, who eventually finished in an unbelievable 17:04:37, started much later and caught up throughout the night and day.

From there, it's all about rotation. Runners one through six go, then the second van picks up from there, and those six runners do their legs, etc... Each runner had a total of three legs, with mine totaling around 17 miles.

So much fun!

First of all... just about everyone I know from around the AZ running scene was there, with the exception of some the ultra folks who were out running the Old Pueblo 50 miler over the weekend. 'Course, met a lot of other nice folks out on the course as well, got my ass kicked by some truly spectacular runners. (And kicked a little ass as well...)

Our run went pretty smoothly. We lost a runner in the middle of the night on Friday night when she tripped and fell on the street... and although she had to drop out of the race, we didn't have too much trouble picking up her leg... plus, she seems to be recovering just fine. We also screwed up a transition from Van II to I in the middle of the night, but that only set us back a little bit.

It's not like we were super competitive or anything, although we did get some good rivalries going with some of the other teams. I saw a ton of the Valley during this adventure. The course takes you all the way from Wickenburg around towards Cave Creek and Carefree down the Carefree highway. We spent the night at some high school out there -- I slept in the parking lot on the asphalt in my sleeping bag, wishing I'd brought along a pad to crash on. Later in the trip, I crashed out in some field at a middle school in Fountain Hills. I think I prefer the field to the parking lot.

From there, we headed out towards the McDowell's and Fountain Hills, then wound our way around to Saguaro Lake, up Usery Pass, and onward through Mesa and down McDowell to finish.

Really... overall, a fantastic event. I will certainly do it again. I posted my pics on Flickr, with more to come as they roll in from the other runners.

Pemberton 50k, Aid Station Volunteer Report

2008-02-12T00:00:00Z

Saturday morning, I put in a few hours volunteering at an aid station the Pemberton 50k over the weekend... and I've gotta tell you, it really was a good time. I'd never done that before, so it was kind of rad to have the chance to help out.

My act wasn't totally without self-interest. I've gotta pick up about twelve hours of volunteer time, preferably in the running community, to fully qualify for the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 in July.

Could be worse, right?

So... I showed up at the race out in the McDowell's at 6:00 am, threw on a headlamp, and casually jogged out to the aid station at mile 5 / 20 (Pemberton is a loop course.) I'm so bad with names, but my fellow aid station volunteers were both fairly talented ultra runners sitting this one out for various reasons.

As the sun came up, we got everything in place. We had a full selection of junk food -- oreos, fig newtons, m&m's, gummy fruits, etc... plus some healthier selections, potatoes with salt, for instance.

It was a perfect day for a race... it started cold, before dawn. As the sun came up, the coyotes started howling around the valley and the temperature dropped further. Luckily, as soon at the sun really started to rise, it warmed up nicely. I think it ended up in the mid 60's over the course of the morning.

The first herd of runners came through all at once. The leaders, those guys made it look easy... it's just a pleasure to watch 'em run. Saw a bunch of folks that I know in the crowd, filled up water bottles and whatnot. For the most part, people were looking pretty strong at mile 5... the ones that weren't, we pretty much didn't see 'em on round two.

After that, there was a long pause. The leaders wouldn't be through for at least another 40 minutes, so I took a little jog myself, covering a little bit more of the Pemberton Trail. Not my favorite trail in the world, maybe, but a great place to hold a race. It certainly delivers a good variety of terrain in a totally runnable way.

By the second lap, folks had spread out considerably, so we had a steady stream of runners come through over the space of a few hours. Some of the folks from WMRC rolled over the course the opposite direction of the race, pretty much just to taunt people and "document the pain." I think 106 people ended up finishing the race.

Not a bad way to spend the day at all. Got in some good runs, met some nice folks... can't beat that.

I'm taking it a little easy this week -- my left ankle feels a little off, so I'm trying to rehab a bit. Nonetheless, I'm going to run the Lost Dutchman Marathon this weekend, but take it nice and easy and slow slow slow. My training philosophy leading up to Zane Grey is to try and run 50-60 miles a week, basically do something of around marathon intensity every weekend. I've started swimming again and have really started eating well.

We'll see how it goes, eh?

Gus runs 18 Miles...

2008-01-27T00:00:00Z

... in the rain, no less.

Was gonna do the 25 mile Tonto Fun Run this weekend, but when I stopped at a Circle K to buy Gatorade on my way out there, it was raining cats 'n' dogs and freezing cold. I'm sure there were hardcore people out there doing that run, but me, there's no way I'm gonna attempt a 25 mile run with 6100 feet of elevation change in the rain, somewhere I've never been before. On a nice day... heck yeah.

Today? No way.

"Screw that," I said... and headed home to wait for the world to warm up a bit. It never rains here... if I'm gonna get used to running in rain on a long distance using unfamiliar equipment -- i.e., rain gear -- I figured it'd be better to do it on terrain I'm familiar with.

At about 10:00 am, Gus 'n' I headed out to South Mountain. I was rocking my fancy new REI shell -- finally, a wet day when I could try that thing out.

I don't know what model it is, so I can't link to it, but those things are amazing. Running in the rain wasn't really uncomfortable at all, since the jacket provides zippers under the arms to allow for extra venting. The hood has a built-in visor, actually helps a lot. I also took the new Brooks Cascadias out for a spin... and they did fine, even in the rain. My feet got wet, but the smart wool and the shoes seemed to prevent any real problems. They're great shoes, at least at first glance -- which is good because they're bright red. (Which is better than the bright orange they tried once, I guess... but I liked the grey.)

The real story, though, is the dog. Gus kicked ass on the trails, totally a viking about it.

Since there was no one out there 'cept us, at least for awhile, I experimented with letting him off leash. As long as there were no distractions, he did fine... after we started to venture into more highly traveled areas, though, I had to leash him again.

The rain actually suited Gus just fine, since he could help himself to puddles along the way for water. It wasn't terribly cold -- in the mid 50's, maybe -- so we just cruised along National, ran back to Telegraph Pass, descended down to Desert Classic, and slowly made our way through the succession of valleys to return to the Pima Canyon parking lot. We got rained on to various degrees the whole way, but when we were running on the upper ridges, we were up above some of the clouds overhanging Phoenix. Kinda cool...

When we finished, we were both soaked to the bone, the dog still full of energy.

The thing is -- that run, with all its many hills and rocks and other weirdness, is at least as brutal as any normal street marathon out there, even though it's only 18 miles. I'm convinced that Gus could do a marathon no problem.

As I write this, the dog is asleep next to me in bed, crashed out. He's been up and around, though -- he did just fine, seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly the whole way.