A note to my family, crew and race day supporters:

Thank you to each of you for what you did to contribute to my successful Western States weekend. This is not an event that you can train for or run without important people in your life making sacrifices on your behalf.  I understand this very well and I appreciate the fact that after many years, many moves and many friends, it always comes back to a very few guys that have my back. Those guys are you along with my brother Bryan, and friend Terry.  Thank you!

When I found out this past October that I was selected to take on this challenge once again, I honestly stopped to think about it before I officially signed up.  If I did it, I wanted to get a Silver buckle.  If I did it, I had to deliver my business commitments at a top level and if I did it, I needed to be the best father I could be to our newborn daughter and a good husband.  I knew if I couldn't find energy for all of that, I couldn't justify adding a third major priority to my plate this year.  So i thought about it and I talked to Phil about training.  He said it could be done with fewer races than 2006 and an aver age of 55 miles a week. I might not have been convinced at first but then again, Phil isn't often wrong when we have these talks.  So I proceeded.

The training went well, Orcas Island 25K seemed easy; Chuckanut (50K) was 17 minutes faster than ever. Then we returned to the Leona Divide 50 Mile, it was a day of 8's.  8th place in 8:08. An 8 minute PR for 50 miles and importantly 38 minutes faster than 2006.  It was working. I skipped Miwok 100K altogether. Back home my running average was staying in the 50s and my weekly Yoga session was helping.

It wasn't long after this that Phil suggested I could take it in pretty conservatively and be where I needed to be on race day.  About that time I made a decision to begin coaching myself, with insights from Phil where needed.  I had a hamstring injury that knocked me down for over a week in late April/early May but my outstanding LMP helped keep it healthy and it never even glitched on race day.

When we arrived in Squaw Valley, my weekly average was 56 miles.  Not bad eh Phil?  We did have some adversity, Colby injured his calf just days before the race, a real disappointment but the good news is that he would be there helping take care of me an d that's all I really ever needed.  My plan was solid because I knew I had two good pacers and I knew Mark was capable of pacing if needed (even if he had never seen a trail, let alone a trail in the dark!)  Way to go Mark!!!

It all came together on Saturday.  I used my own20race strategy, walk 95% of the climbs, run 95% of the flats/downs.  I executed it all day long.  Gels every 20 minutes (64 total), Balanced whenever I saw my crew (5 times). Succeed caps every 45 minutes.  Ice in the hat. Get wet whenever I could.  Find the '15 minute' shuffle and try not to exceed it even if it feels like you can.  Don't blow the late race running for early glory. I didn't carry split charts and I discarded past advice like running 60% of the first climb up the escarpment.

Early on I was cruising in the back of some slow pace lines but this works for me at places like McKenzie, Mt Hood and even Leona. So I remained patient. By the time I got to Duncan Canyon (23.8 miles) I literally felt as if I hadn't even run. It might have been the best I felt all day.  Colby, Phil and Mark topped me up, I swapped my visor for a white hat and grabbed the 'tall bottles', I was off.  The next section is actually the canyon and its my least favorite part of the course.  Charred black from the Star fire a few years back, its about the20hottest climb of the day.  I=2 0soaked in the creek at the bottom and methodically climbed out.  By the time I reached Lori and Anna at Robinson Flat (29.7) I was Grumpy, this was the low point of my day.  But they cheered me up along with Sarah and Owen and I was off to Miller's Defeat.