Peterisoba

My schedule finally aligned itself with the annual race known as the Peterisoba...which follows suit with the Colinoba as an underground adventure race which costs nothing and gets you racing in un-permittable areas in our backyard (follow tie in with Trioba). Peteris out did himself with a 12 hour Creekteering, challenging Mountain Bike, rapel, ridge running and boulder hopping course followed by a 12 hour rogaine.

23 hours later my trusty team mate Aaron and I found ourselves in a baja rally car with Peteris behind the wheel. He exclaimed in his Latvian English that he could drive this road blindfolded and that if he had a real rally car we would have a better excuse for holding onto the Oh Shit handle. We also got the details of the traffic patterns on the North Fork road and that we could be assured that cornering on the inside of a blind turn at 45 mph was ok because in the last year only 3 cars had been seen between 4 and 5 am...did you know Peteris knows how to drift on washboarded logging roads?

In the end we climbed, ran, walked, slept and boulder hopped our way through the course and got to see a bunch of friends out there doing the same thing. I wrote another report here for our teams PQ training, check it out if you want more...big THANKS to Peteris and other volunteers for including us and having a well planned course. I am now considering PQ training for next years Peterisoba.

Pics and other reports:

Peteris' Pictures

Colin and Connies Pictures

Verve's Race Report

Whats next? Big Blue Lake Tahoe as team Trioba.com then taper for PQ. Getting excited about racing in SD and checking out the Badlands and the Black Hills.

-Photo credit to Colin Ness, love that picture!

Training on the I-90 corridor

Top of Mt Washington...in between the clouds

Seegs heads to Badwater

Jen Segger, Dart-nuun team mate and good friend, is currently 14 hours into her run at badwater...135 miles of pure madness, or in her eyes pure running pleasure. Jen stopped in on her way down South and was in great spirits and seemed very ready to run her heart out.

I honestly did not know much about badwater until recently...135 miles of running on the pavement from the lowest point on North America to Mt Whitney, some of the runners continue up the 14,000 foo peak. It gets so hot that the runners shoe soles melt off. Urban myth, I dont think so.

The VanGorder household are sending all our good vibes and cool thoughts to Jen and her attempt at crushing badwater...go Seegs go!

Seegs getting ready for war at the start line...

Capitol Peak Ultra-race report

My race report, at least the bits that I can remember...grab a cup of coffee, this is a long one.

This was my first official Marathon, or Ultra marathon at that. The longest official running race I had done prior to this was Bay to Breakers in SF, it's a 12K. Of course I have run farther than this, I just have not done a lot of running races. My overall goal was to run a consistent race, survive and have fun. I wanted to average around 11 minute miles and avoid my problem of fast/slow running.

Glenn, Aaron and myself headed down to the start of the Capitol Peak ultra on Friday night since the race was to start at 6:00 am on Saturday. We did not want to deal with driving before the race, especially that early. Aaron set his alarm for 5:20 and I set mine for 5:25.

Beep, beep , beep ...oh the pain of the early morning alarm. I brushed Aaron's off knowing mine would go off. I shut mine off before it was done with its first chirp of noise...thinking that Aaron had just hit snooze and his would go off again. Next thing you know Glenn has opened up the back of my truck and yells, "I can't believe you guys are sleeping through all this noise." It's now 5:44 and the pre race meeting is in one minute, it shouldn't be a problem as were pretty much sleeping on the start line.

We missed the race meeting and the instructions and I do hear something about a course change but I don't catch the particulars. I steal a couple of gulps of Glenn's warm coffee and then hit the woods, to avoid the ten person line to the bathroom. Michelle came over and gave out some pre race hugs and said hi, it was great to see her...she was running the 50 mile, big props to her.

Next thing you know Jeff, the Race Director, says, "OK Line up!". I've got my new Vasque Aether Tech's on, I've hydropelled my important parts and I'm applying the first safety pin to secure my race number (142) when I hear, "Ready, set, go!" They were off, not real fast, but they were off. Aaron and I looked at each other and laughed and Glenn threw something in the back of my truck and left with the gang.

After a couple of other preparations and grabbing a map we were out of there, DFL. We both opted to start cold and knew we would be warming up. Right out of the gates we climbed 600 feet and continued with a gradual climb for the first 6 miles. We took it easy and within 10 minutes or so we bumped into a line of 20 racers that were walking a pretty gradual hill, we walked with them for a while and then did the three man weave for a quarter mile to work our way around them. Soon enough we bumped into our second pack of 15-20 people, saw Maislen with this gang and then we topped out at the first aid station just behind 3 racers. Aaron and I were both wearing Gregory Stimulus and had enough provisions to stop at every other aid station so we passed these guys and kept trucking along.

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Note, I was running very alert for most of the race due to the fact that we missed the meeting and I kept thinking that my map would get me out of any trouble that we might find. As it turned out I knew the trails good enough to understand where we were going and I never really needed it. The Adventure racer in me was ready to nav at any point, but the course was impecably marked and running the intended route was a breeze. Thanks race management.

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I was feeling great and really enjoying the trail. I have biked the loop we were running before but there is something to say for running trails as you get a much different perspective and can enjoy the scenery a bit more. Soon enough we were at the 2nd aid station where I put down a couple of ounces of Coke and ate some salty chips on my way out. My Hydrapack bladder was filled with Tri-Berry nuun and it was treating me perfectly. On our way out one of the volunteers said we were five miles in...as we left Aaron and I both simultaneously thought what a downer! All this running for five miles. Of course I checked my watch and we were 2 hours into the race and I was anxious to figure out what the real mileage was.

After a couple of miles of mostly downhill running back to the start and aid station #4, we quickly learned we were 15 miles into the race. Awesome! Both Aaron and I were feeling great and were excited to climb Capitol peak and get this done with. The next 7 or 8 miles was filled with climbing and more climbing. It felt like someone had put 5 pound ankle weights on me...it was the climbing. Aaron jumped in front and dropped the hammer a bit on the switchbacks, I held on for dear life and soon enough we were on top of the world. At this aid station there was a 1.5 mile out and back to the peak, where you could drop your gear if you wanted and climb .75 mile straight up and then sprint back down. this was also a great spot to see what competition was within striking distance.

We had passed a good number of runners to this point and with this section we realized that there was more roadkill, probably 7 or 8 runners within 10 minutes of us. I think the fire was lit in Aaron's eyes. WAIT, what was that? Rocky, no. But, EYE OF THE TIGER, YES! The race director had a ghetto blaster playing eye of the tiger on repeat for the climb. I got to hear 2 full renditions of the song, one on the way up and one on the way down...and then it was permanently stuck in my head until I finished. Loved it. (JPC I thought you might have been behind this).

After this we hit the North side of a ridge that had a large amount of snow remaining on it. This took the wind out of my sail and slowed me down a bit, at 4:20 in the race Aaron took off. I think eventually we passed almost all of the runners we had seen on the out and back, but my low point was right around the corner and Aaron drifted off into the forest around 4:40 into the race.

I could not stay on top of the snow and was post holing every other step...feeling my pace go down and getting a bit demoralized I knew I had to refuel and keep moving. So I went into a fast walk and ate and drank just about everything I had. The snow diminished and soon I was back in the saddle. BOOM, we hit the aid station, it was a sight for soar eyes. 6 miles to the finish.

I filled my bladder with the complimentary nuun and pulled up a front row seat to the table known to most as aid station #7 and started to buffet. PB&J's, watermelon, cantelope, chips, payday candy bars...I thought I might just hang out here for a while. Oh yeah I'm racing. I felt the creep of some lactic acid in the legs and realised I had to get out of there. I decided I would try and run the last 6 miles in 60 minutes. These 6 miles were the best section of trail and made what should have been the toughest part the easiest part. It helped that it was all downhill too.

69 minutes later I came into the sunny finish line and was pumped. Aaron and Glenn finished 10 minutes ahead of me and per my watch we climbed 1,430 meters and I finished in 6 hours and 9 minutes. We'll see what the official time says, I expect it to be a bit longer (5 minutes) as I did not start my watch until I started running.

I consider the race a success and think I accomplished my goals
-Average estimated pace 10:51min/mile
-No blisters
-No injuries
-Feeling great!

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Just found the race pictures here!

Dimitri + Russia, he is back at it

Well he is back at it and has been for a little less than 2 weeks. Dimitri and his endeavors in the Nexus Expedition have begun where he left off after crossing the Bering Straight a couple of years ago...looks like he just keeps on going. His pictures and tales are truly amazing and it is easy to get lost in his adventures.



I'm running the Capitol Peak Ultra this weekend with Glenn and Maybe Aaron for training. I guess it is the in thing to do lately...so many runners out there crushing it on the trails. I will be running the 55k and then hopefully doing some mountain biking with Glenn after the race. My goal for the race is to be consistent ...skimming out the volatility and looking for something close to 11-12 minute miles from start to finish.



This is the last big training weekend before Desert winds, next weekend will be chill, which is primarily a treking/paddling race so time on my feet will be very beneficial. We finally locked down the team as Karen injured her leg and Lina A will be jumping on board. Lina kicked some serious booty in Baja with the Yoga Slackers and we are all looking forward to her dragging us around the desert :-)

Racing the Planet

Monday November 12th we headed to REI to hear a presentation by 'Dr. Extreme', or Dr. Brian Krabak, about his experiences as the Medical Director for the Racing the Planet running series. The race takes place in 4 deserts accross the globe, which has a bit of interest to me as the deserts of Moab recently handed me a big F-U...and I am a bit intrigued by races through these miserable environments.


There were a handful of local adventure racers and ultra runners on hand and it was nice to see everyone. As well, there was a panel consisting of Dimitri Keiffer, Roger Michel and a Physical Therapist from Bellevue. It is great to hear insights into various people's preparation for these events, the one that caught my attention was an individual who had run three of the Racing the Planet events, had run in place for up to an hour a night while barefoot in a rubbermaid filled with rice. Evidently this toughened his feet up enough to run blisterless through his last race. WOW.

This race series seems pretty sweet and would be a good excuse for me to start ejoying running more.

Mt Garfield, round and round

We spent the weekend in the mountains near Snoqualmie Pass and running around the Alpine Lakes region. There is still plenty of snow above 3600 feet, especially on the North facing slopes.

Two years ago I ran an out and back that consisted of the first 6 miles of the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River trail followed up by 3 miles of the Dingford Creek trail. The entire run we had the awe inspiring Mt. Garfield to our East and North. After studying my Green Trails map for a while I brainstormed up the idea that we could circumnavigate Garfield and connect the Dingford Creek trail to the Taylor Creek trail with a small 2 mile bush whack and a little billy goating.

With the right timing and conditions we finally made it happen. Four weeks ago we ran the Midle Middle and got a mile or two up the Dingford creek portion before we called it a day due to the amount of snow accumulation. This time we came more prepared with gaitors, 10 essentials and a light weight ice axe. We were going to pick up where we left off and try and do the rest of the loop.

Our crew consisted of JVG, Rinn and Matzke. The first 5.5 miles of the trail took us to Myrtle lake for some well deserved photos, big sandwiches and snowball fights. From there we climbed another 1000 feet up to Little Myrtle lake and the trail was lost beneath the snow. JVG and Matzke headed back to the car and Rinn and I forged onward to connect the trails. Once we hit the high point (4300 ft) the views opened up and we had shots out into some sreiously remote wilderness. No tracks, nothing to follow but our bearings and we were loving it.

We did come accross a series of cliffs but navigated our way around the hazards and worked our way down to Bear Lake. Next we hit Deer Lake and then Snoqualmie lake where we picked up the trail which would eventually turn into our ticket out of the wilderness. This was a truely awesome day in the hills and I felt like we were without boundaries. I imagine that the terrain we were in is very similar to what we will be in soon at Raid the North Extreme and this was a great pre-race training to get Rinn and I primed to get after it in Prince Rupert.

It's nice to know you have the skills to get where you want to go...so while we did not do the circumnavigation in one fell swoop we did finally link the trails and now know it is easily done. We did 18 miles, the whole thing would be somewhere between 23-25 miles with the middle middle trail thrown in on the end. Good times.

Memorial Adventures

What a weekend! Why can't they all be that long? We also lucked out with the weather in our all star list of events. Saturday morning Aaron, JVG and I headed north to tackle Mt. Galbraith, near Bellingham, and on the approach we thought we would try something new. We had heard about some new trails in Anacortes, near Whistle Lake, and thought we would give them a try...thanks for the idea Kathy! We stopped in Mt. Vernon and picked up some trail maps for $4.99 and headed out for 3.5 hours of good riding. The trails are very well kept and fast. We probably speant over 30 minutes in total looking at our maps to route find our way through the maze of butery trails.

After that Rinn and I hit Galbraith for over an hour of fast paced riding. He broke his seat post on the first feature we rode (horizontal ladder) and stayed out of the saddle for the rest of the ride, good thing most of it was at race pace!

Saturday night we camped near Grouse Mountain...in someone's front yard. We got kicked out of our camping spot at midnight by the grouse mountain parking patrol and headed down the street for some real car camping. We were going to run the Iron Knee trail race from Grouse Mountain to Deep Cove on the Baden Powell trail. It turned out there was no race day registration so JVG and I ran half of it backwards and snapped photos of the runners and Rinn (who was smart enough to pre register) as he passed through. It was a great way to see the race and the trail, which was unbelievably beautiful. We also saw lots of familiar faces from the canadian AR scene and some new faces as well. Lots of cool peeps.

Post trail run we headed up to Whistler for an all out assault on the cross county trail Saturday afternoon and the down hill park on Monday. We hit up Danimal, Bob's re-bob, whip it snip it, and a bunch of other trails that were below the snow level of 3200ft. Monday was an absolute blast in the Whistler Park and we tore it up. We enjoyed all of the trails, I think we had the most fun on the captain insano super tech trails that were made much easier with our rental bikes which had 8 inches of travel up front and in the rear. They were Rocky Mountain RMX's...quality bikes. I was a bit worried about getting injured but made it through with a sore foot and a couple fo scrapes that will go away soon. Only a couple of falls and lots of good times. For any bike rider that has ever thought about hitting Whistler....get up there and check it out. They make such sweet trails and focus so much of their energy on the bike scene it is a must do on your adventure travel checklist.


here is Aaron ripping it up on joyride...big rock drop.

Running the Middle Middle

Two weekends ago we hit up the Middle Middle of the Snoqualmie river and were trying to circumnavigate Mt. Garfield...which is still on our list! There was too much snow in the higher elevations and we threw in the towel after spending about 45 minutes in calf to knee deep snow. The first 7 miles of the run were absolutely stunning...here's our small vid.

Bridal Trails and Mt. Pillchuck

This weekend was filled with activities and the training is in full swing. Saturday JVG, Glenn and myself started the day off with a mellow paddle to the Ballard Locks and spent some time on the water while it was snowing. It was very Serene. Afterwards we headed over to Kirkland to run the Bridal Trails Race. I opted for the 10 mile run and Glenn and Seegs (who came down from Squamish) stepped up to run the 50K. There were a handfull of NW Adventure racers on scene getting their training kickstarted with the sub-zero temps. (Mike Miller, Purcell, D, Shannon)

Instead of fighting the cold temps on Sunday, I joined them and went with Stack, Vinca and her friend Sara up to Mt. Pillchuck for what turned out to be an awesome day and a killer workout. The access road to the pilchuck parking lot is closed and we did a 5+ mile 1500 vertical foot skin in to the actual climb and then skinned another 3 miles and 1500 more feet up the hill to catch some amazing views, unbelievable powder turns and a great day of training. Here are the pics to prove it.