"The Craziest Run I Have Ever Done"

No really...it was!

I owe a tremendous debt to my friend Jamie Dial, for he introduced and mentored me into the sport of Ultra Trail Running. He is training to do a 100 mile trail run this summer. Because he is my friend, I am helping him in the process. Somewhere along the way, the idea was conceived to run a segment of the Appalacian Trail that bisected Smoky Mountain National Park. The length of this trail was 72 miles.

My normal write-ups attempt to be descriptive and informative. This time it is short and simple. We started the run at 2am in the dark. Jamie fell and slashed his knee about 40 mintues into the run.. It was hilly. Pretty scenery. At 11:14pm we came off the trail. It hurt. I'm glad I did it. Enjoy the photos.

BOSTON REDUX

Boston 1, Stephen Taylor 1
Boston Marathon, April 16, 2007

I approached the Boston Marathon with a mixture of feelings this year. I had some unfinished business there, to be sure. As a fledgling 22-year old endurance athlete, I got my a** handed to me there. Boston 1997 was an important learning experience for me on many fronts: pacing, nutrition, patience, humility. Read about that experience here.

So now in 2007 I had signed up for the race as sort of a blip on my spring/summer racing schedule. See, what I really want to do is go fast at Olympic distance triathlon. I've been training hard, or more specifically fast, to do just that. What effect would my tri training have on a marathon race?

I qualified for Boston in January 2006 at the Miami marathon, with a smashing PR of 2:44. My aspirations for Boston on this day were much more modest. In fact, I had seriously considered running the race in the format of a pub crawl. There is so much crowd support along the race course that inevitably some parties break out. Eventually I decided to run a conservative 2:59. That way I could break 3 hours (the unfinished business) and hopefully limit the recovery time my legs would need to get back to hard swimming and biking.

Another twist was added to this story by the weather, which was atrocious. In the drive from Nashville to Boston, we drove through heavy wind and torrential downpours; a "Nor'Easterner." The forecast was for 40 degrees, 25mph headwinds, and rain. The conditions made the 2:59 time goal seem that much more challenging, but also added an enticing element of mental toughness.

Boston is unique in that it is a point-to-point course. Runners are shuttled from Boston Commons up to the town of Hopkinton, where they wait hours for the race to start. We were prepared, with a waterproof ground mat, a sleeping bag, and an umbrella. Huddled on the edge of a flooded high school football field, we hunkered down and managed to stay warm and dry. There were some miserable people in the waiting area, looking like space travelers wrapped in plastic from head to toe. Definitely staying warm and reasonably dry was a big part of the strategy before the race.

As the start time neared, I put my warm clothes in the shuttle to await me at the finish line. I listened to one more song on my ipod: "Daft Punk is Playing at My House." Wearing nothing but my race apparel, I jogged the mile to the starting corral. I made a couple of inconspicuous stops to urinate, stretched, then took my position among the runners.

My race plan initiated with the firing of the gun: Hold Back. Boston begins with several miles of downhill, which tends to lure runners into a false sense of confidence. My plan was to chill, hit the halfway mark at 1:29, and enjoy the scenery. Even as I was hitting mile splits 20 seconds ahead of pace, runners were streaming past me. I had learned my lesson here 10 years prior. Let them go.

The funny thing is a lot of the people that were passing me did not look that good. Many had awkward or inefficient-looking running form. I had overdressed by wearing a thin windbreaker shell over a skintight base layer. Shortly I had the coat tied around my waist, but these people were wearing gore-tex coats, stocking caps, mittens, fleece pants. I don't understand how one can run in so many hot clothes, but they were.

My patient pacing was going as planned. I was still running fast, but my body and HR monitor were telling me I was in the right "zone." One conversation I overheard was two runners sharing their time goals. One runner said "I am going for a 2:50, but the conditions are bad." With little pause, I challenged him, "actually these conditions are good. If you draft it is ideal racing weather." At that moment we both realized…except for the headwind, it was not too bad. And if you drafted strategically…

It was then when I started hearing spectators cheer, "Go Army." (You have to imagine that with a Boston accent.) I realized there was a guy near me running with an Army singlet on. For some reason he seemed to be running the pace I wanted to hold…steady but he wasn't passing a bunch of people yet.

I tucked in behind him and let his frame (slightly taller and more muscled than my own) block the wind. As Miles 9-12 ticked off, his pace stayed steady at 6:20-6:35 per mile. He was running strong and very steady, and moreover didn't seem to mind me running off his shoulder. Mile after mile I ran behind him, exchanging a few words once in a while but mostly keeping the mind on task. Yes he was running faster than my goal pace, but I couldn't bring myself to let such a steady source of drafting go.

Here is where ongoing work with running form really paid off. I have been running for 20 years, but even in the past 6 weeks I have learned new cues for running fast. I set my mindset on holding those movements, breathing deeply, keeping my mind and body relaxed. Whenever the running started to feel effortful, I consciously increased my cadence until it felt as if I were easily shuffling along. Also drawing from lessons learned 10 years earlier, I drank sports drink every mile and took in three gels over the course of the race. These contain a bunch of caffeine and I took one a couple minutes before Hearbreak Hill.

At mile 20, here was the location of my undoing at my first Boston attempt. On this day however I was running quite a bit faster but with all kinds of strategy. I pulled ahead of the Army runner and CHARGED up Heartbreak hill, passing dozens and dozens of runners. Their heads were hanging, dejected, a shelled remnant of the optimists that had started too quickly two hours earlier. At the top of the hill I looked at my watch: 6:23! That was awesome! I gave my accomplice a high-five and we turned our attention to flying downhill on the other side.

By this time I realized I had a pretty good time going. My conservative 2:59 goal was obviously a memory; the 2:55 benchmark one friend challenged me to was now also going to drop, but by how much?

This is where the joy of racing filled me. My legs hurt but they were moving fast very fast. I felt strong and more importantly full of drive to run fast. I WAS STOKED. I wasn't going to meekly meet my 10 year old Boston goal, a faded and yellow relic that I had long surpassed. I was going to HAMMER it home. The next mile after cresting Heartbreak I split 5:55. Yeah. Let's keep it rolling and see what I can do.

I was flying past runners now. The huge crowds along the streets could tell I was on fire. My form was strong and I was driven. Mile 23 fell in 5:53 and mile 24 in another 5:55. Oh this was so fun, I was full of running. I started doing mental math and calculated that I had 14 minutes left, then 12, then at mile 25, after running a 5:49, 8 minutes of effort left. By this time it was the thrill to see if I could hold the redline pace.

A couple quick corners delivers you to the finishing home stretch. As I turned the corner it was as if a wall of sound and energy hit my square in the chest. A solid roar from the crowd met huge booming base and that finish line looked so far in the distance. My the intensity of that 4-5 block stretch met my own emotional intensity and I drove to the finish line. Runners continued to fall by the wayside and no one even came close to matching my kick in to the finish line. When I crossed the line, the clock said 2:47 and some seconds. I felt good. That was not as hard as I expected.

Analytically, I have to ask myself what contributed to this performance. I can identify racing factors and training factors. In the race, I was patient by letting a lot of runners pass me early. That is a key as most people start any distance race to fast. Then patiently pacing and drafting off another runner paid huge dividends as well. Finally an attention to form, particularly cadence and arm position added an extra level of efficiency so had the reserves to hammer when it counted.

In training, I can definitely say that my ultra distance training and racing from this winter was helpful experience. In a 50K you have to do a 4 th Quarter Smackdown after 3 hours, not after 2 in the marathon, so there is another level of endurance that transferred to marathon. Also my triathlon training which largely has been high intensity in nature also added that extra fitness. Call it V02max or Shark Fin, but the high end stuff is key (thanks to my coaches who push me there, Jamie, Johnny, and Ashley).

Most of all the key is to be STOKED about what you do. Originally I wasn't fired up for this race especially with the weather and everything. But when I got there it was fun and everything came together. I write these race reports with some being more impressionistic and others being more analytical. But it is still magical to me every time it works. Every time I race well and reach a goal I genuinely feel surprised. It is the same feeling I get when my clients experience success. The best conclusion I can arrive at is to put your feelings and dreams into your goal, and allow it to be realized. Get stoked to drive the process, forget about the goal/outcome, and allow yourself to be surprised. That is when the magic happens.

Mount Mitchell Challenge 40 mile

February 24, 2007
Black Mountain, NC
www.blackmountainmarathon.com

Taylor finishing the 40 mile Challenge in 5:14

The smart money in this race was on Will Harlan, who had previously won 4 times. Interestingly, his name did not appear on the list of entrants even the day before the race. I learned this is what ultrarunners call a "ringer." This was my third ultra and first time to do the Mount Mitchell Challenge. It was a great experience.

The Challenge consists of a 20-mile climb from Black Mountain, NC to the peak of Mount Mitchell, elevation of 6600 feet. That is higher than Denver! The weather started in the upper 30's and rose to a comfortably sunny upper 50's by mid day. I was pumped to do this run on such a beautiful day.

Things looked quite stacked in the women's field, with Annette Bednosky, 2005 Western States champion, and Anne Lundblad, 100k Worlds silver medalist. Lundblad ran off the front of the pack from the start with Sarah Almodovar chasing. Bednosky--on the mend from a hamstring injury--used this day to start conservatively and increase the intensity on the way back down the mountain.

Those opting for the Black Marathon turn back at about 14 miles. With a thinned out pack I found myself in 4th place about 2 minutes back from the lead pack consisting of Harlan, last year's marathon winner Coates Kennerly, and Mark Lundblad. My plan was to catch the leaders and bust this race wide open. The top of the mountain had a few pockets of ice, but it was minute compared to what there usually is at this time of year. Nevertheless I managed to fall three times before I figured out to run around the ice. I'm sure the view from the peak was beautiful, but I was too intent on chasing the leaders to look around much.

The descent is what really chewed up my legs. I started down from the summit too fast, trying to make up time on the first technical mile back down. Just after attempting to blaze that section, I was met with another long steady climb on a gravel road. But the real killer was 2-3 miles of steep descending on the paved Blue Ridge Parkway. The tears in my eyes were from Joy. That's what I tried to tell myself. The splits I received told me that the top were dropping the hammer, and dropping me.

I had to give myself a philosophical attitude adjustment. Here I was running in the mountains on a beautiful day. I needed to find some serenity and quit worrying about what place I was in. I focused on finding my rhythm and picking my lines down mile after mile of descending trail. Coates Kennerrly was the only one from the lead pack to come back to me. He had evidently taken it out too fast by leading Harlan at the top. Harlan also reeled in Lundblad and the two friends cruised in to break the old course record, with 4:54:21 and 4:57:21 respectively. Ashville resident Drew Shelfner brought it home for fourth. My ultrarunning coach, training partner, and fellow Nashville resident Jamie Dial placed 5th.

At the end of the women's race Lundblad's solitary pace won in 5:51:44, narrowly missing a course record. Victory must have been sweet for Lundblad, who finished second to Bednosky in the 2005 edition of this race. Bednosky's conservative pacing paid off as she turned up the heat in the later sections of the course to finish with a 6:16:54, but it was not enough to close on Almodovar's second 6:14:24.

Taylor with Training partners (from left) Johnny Pryor and Jamie Dial. Pryor finished the marathon after deciding just 1 day earlier to enter. Dial placed an impressive 5th.

Jonathan Basham of won the Black Mountain Marathon in 3:20:53. He said he wanted to enter the Challenge but it was already closed when he tried to sign up. Lauren Arnold was second overall and first woman in the Marathon with 3:33:55. Graham McDonald, at the tender age of 18, was the youngest finisher in 8:02:40 for 40 miles.

In the it's 10th year this race started a record number of 252 participants in the combinated Challenge and Marathon. There were four men recognized as as finishers of all 10 editions of the race: Mike Beamon (also champion of the master's Challenge), Guido Ferrari, Luke Lucus, and Dr. Robert Barker .

Stephen Taylor, race report submitted to Ultrarunning magazine.

Mountain Mist 50K

January 27, 2007
Huntsville, AL

The context of this race is my second 50K trail run. Somehow I managed to win my first foray into ultramarathon, last October's Stumpjump. My training partner and coach Jamie Dial had killed ourselves to get ready for this race. Often we would would finish a 15, 20, even 30 mile run racing each other at top speeds. Despite his pre-race sandbagging trash talk ("I haven't really been training...I just got back into running,") we were both pumped.

If you have never toed the starting line of a race with the idea of trying to win it, imagine the adrenaline that is flowing! You've spent every weekend running in mud, wind, rain, and sunlight in order to temper your body into something hard and fast. Right next to you is any number of competitors who want to do the same, and they want to beat you at your own game. You really have to go inside of yourself and resist the urge to freak out, take off too fast, or walk off to the side and quit before you start. I thought I was prepared.

The race started in a unfurling stampede of running shoes. The start of a 31 mile race involves opening up your legs just enough to get them rolling, but exercising enough restraint so as not to foolishly expend your reserves. It is a competition to see who can whisper the loudest. I searched for my rhythm that was effortless but fast. My sights quickly set on the number of runners ahead of me...let's see...okay, there's 8. And Jamie is right behind me. The first few miles before any real effort begins you are unrolling yourself like a big spool of yarn across the floor. The momentum of the body carries you through each step without really pushing. We floated along, and I found myself in 6th place in the early stages of the race.

The most exciting part of trail running, in my opinion, is the agility required to go fast. The myriad of rocks, roots, rollers, twists, and trees require an athleticism different from road running. Your attention must focus on every step to cover ground efficiently. To run strategically this means that you must "float" over these trail hazards while at the same time never quite putting yourself "out there" with too much effort.

Another interesting strategy of trail running is walking the hills. WALK THE HILLS. Somewhere in about the third or fourth mile of the race--still very early--I walked 50 feet up a little rise. Now mind you I could have jogged up the hill, or even ran briskly up it. But ultra racing is all about conservation of energy. So here I smoothly transitioned to power walk for several paces, then rolled back into a gliding run. Such tactics early on were invaluable later when it came time for the Fourth Quarter Smackdown.

As the first 10 miles rolled by, then 15 miles, I had to carefully protect my state of mind. I was using all of my energy conservation strategies of walking hills and floating over terrain, but mile after mile I was still sitting in 6th place. The 5th place runner just seemed to hang out up there about 30 or 45 seconds ahead of me, and nothing I tried seemed to bring him any closer. Who knows how fast the other runners ahead were going.

Through these middle miles, I began to give myself a little speech. "It's time for your reality check. You are running well, but you are in the presence of better runners today. Time for a reality check. You are about to be put in your place."

Presently I Iooked at my watch and realized two and a half hours had passed already, and it felt like the race was still just getting started. I still did not have the really "fired up" feeling that I was hoping for. I had been constantly drinking Hammer Perpetuem drink throughout the race so far, but I needed something more. I remembered I had an energy gel containing 50mg of caffeine, and I decided it was time. I slurped the gel and washed it down with more Perpetuem. I was approaching one of the rockiest, most contorted sections of the course.

The trail really started to get nasty here. Imagine running on rocks ranging from marble to tennis ball size. Sharp rocks. What looked like a nice wide open trail took even more concentration on footing than before. The feet were getting bruised. I even fell and whacked my kneecap on a rock. Pain shot though my body as my knee suddenly stiffened. I fought back the pain and tears as I tried to it walk off. Reality check: "Eat more of that gel. Get the caffeine in you. Be careful man, you could really hurt yourself here and loose even your 6th place."

Blessing of blessing....I could still run and I got my legs turning over again. I got my momentum back a little bit and all of the sudden I could see 5th place ahead of me. He didn't even know that I had fallen and he appeared to be suffering on the sharp rocks even worse than I was. I rolled right up and ran behind him--both of us in silence--until I passed him with a few words of collegial encouragement.

It was almost time for the Fourth Quarter Smackdown. I put the afterburners on in an attempt to put some space on the guy I had just passed. I was in the groove now, flying through the rocky stuff to the start of the Waterline Trail. The Waterline is a mile of perfectly straight trail that starts almost flat. It gradually gets steeper and steeper until it launches almost vertically, where you actually climb up the side of a waterfall, cross the waterfall itself, then climb hand over foot, grasping at trees and solid rock to claw yourself up the side of the bluff.

Jamie's words: "This is where all hell will break loose." In ultra racing, "all hell breaks loose" differently than in the ordinary sense. Mile 23 of a 31 mile race is where most people are going to pay the price for their earlier pacing indiscretions. One such runner suddenly came into my view.

It was time to make my move. Begin smackdown.

This runner was struggling to run, no, jog up this hill. I would run a few steps but each time my heart rate started to climb I would shift back to my power walk. Fast steps. Breathe. Keep your head up. He was getting closer. We transitioned onto the section which is basically rock climbing, and I just kept reeling him in even though I was walking. My bloodstream was coursing with lactic acid, caffeine, adrenaline as I passed him.

In the space of a few seconds, I tightened the screws on my competition. It took every bit of strength I had to keep putting one leg in front of the other but now I had to take it one step further. Before I got to the top of this crazy steep climb, I kicked in 10 or 20 steps of running. I had just dropped 4th place like he was standing still. This was my plan, and the execution was suddenly unfolding exactly like I had hoped!

Topping out the climb brought little relief because I had to keep the pressure on. Better yet, just 75 yards ahead of me through the clearing was the 3rd place runner, last year's winner. Awesome! I focused on keeping my momentum with a high cadence. I rounded a corner and suddenly saw him lying on the ground, clutching his hamstring and crying out in pain. I wished him a quick recovery as I freaking FLEW past him.

In the course of 10 minutes, my entire fortune had changed. Rather than languishing in 6th place, I had suddenly busted out the crux move of the entire 31 mile race, presently feeling stronger than ever and in 3rd place. Moments later I passed my support crew Kathy and MJ and said to them, "how about them apples!" They handed me a bottle of HEED and confirmed that I was 10 minutes behind the top two runners. Third place was mine to keep or loose now, and I held it.

Really, that was the race right there. With 6 miles remaining, I flew down a long, steep, twisty, rocky mile-long descent...feeling awesome. The final mile- long climb was challenging, but the patience early in the race allowed me to keep my momentum up it, then finish the final 1.8 mile flat section in a sprint. To get third place behind two of the top trail runners in the nation felt awesome, and my time of 4:05 would have won many years of the race. The previous course record of 4:02 was smashed by winner Dave Mackey's time of 3:46. Whew!

I was across the line, but how were my friends doing? My race wasn't just about my race, it was about the training and fun and all the smackdowns and coaching Jamie had inflicted on me. I had hardly put my warm clothes on when I saw Jamie bust across the line in 6th place. Awesome! Still breathing hard, he said to me with more than a little Tennessee drawl, "now do you see the benefit of the Fourth Quarter Smackdowns?"

Big Kudos to my other friends who also finished with special congratulations to my dear partner Rachel who finished her first 50K in true rock star fashion (you'll have to ask her what I mean.) Wendi Parker-Dial got 2nd place and Kris Whorton won the women's side (both beat the previous course record). Mark Harris, Chad Wamack, Nick Nicholson, Chris Lewis, and Kieth Woodall are my training buddies and friends...great job guys! Huge thanks to Kathy Mead and MJ who provided expert support crew help during the race, and Mary Ann McCain and Rusty, for cheering extraordinare. Thanks to all my clients, friends, and readers of my newsletters who root me on and send me the positive mojo vibes.