Blackhills 100- My Second DNF

Not much to say about this race. We drove to South Dakota and got to have a very nice family vacation. The race not so much. Hope will not get you through a 100 mile race. I went in to this race under trained due to injury and still injured. It caught up to me. The course had over 18,000 feet of elevation change from 3500-6000 feet MSL. Due to torrential rains the course was covered in thick slippery mud. I slipped down a mountain at mile 25 and reinjured my Achilles. That was the end of my race. I walked 4 miles to the next aid station and dropped at mile 29. I did get some great pictures though.

It's been a decade

10 years ago today I left the gate at Fort Carson Colorado and drove back to the state of my birth. It's been 10 years since I have worn the uniform of the United States. Somewhere a private that entered service on the day I left is a SFC leading troops in combat. Memories are fading and places and times are slowly blending together. I liberate the oppressed in different ways now. I try to help those oppressed by disease,injury, or their inability to connect with civilian life. It's been a long time and seems like yesterday. I will always be connected to my brothers, the warriors that came before me, my peers, and those that followed. Best job I will ever have.

De Oppressor Liber

Booneville Backroads 100K

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/345615143


The Booneville 100K was my last long race prior to my 100 mile attempt in South Dakota next month. I picked this race over a few others I have done in the past due to its proximity to home ( only 2 hours) and the fact that it was my first official 100K. I have run farther and I have run shorter but I have never officially run a 100K (62Mile) race before.

I left work a little early Friday for the race. This was necessary because most races have developed an irritating habit of limiting packet pickup to the day prior and none on the day of the race. I understand why but it causes extra expense for most of us. To try and defray some of that expense I decided to sleep in my Jeep on Friday night and possibly after the race. Any way I drove the 2 hours to packet pickup which was in Des Moines and grabbed my swag bag. I also left my lone drop bag and hung out for a soda/beer with fellow Team RWB teammate Larry Kelly. About 1900 I headed to Booneville, grabbed a pizza at the local bar and bedded down at the start line for the night. I also talked to a Marine vet who was running the 100K and encouraged him to join the Omaha Chapter of Team RWB.



So after a fairly comfortable night I woke up the next morning and drove my car down the road 100 meters to the designated parking spot. I met up with some fellow RWB'ers Tim Smith and Larry Kelly and then we made our way right back to the start on the officially sanctioned shuttle van. Thre were 30 people preregistered for the 100K but only 22 started the race. The 100K was starting an hour earlier than the 50K and the 50K relay, so we started bright an early at 0600. After short speech and a group photo we were off.

Mile 1-20

The temperature was cool at the start and with such a small group everyone chitchatted and kept an easy pace. Tim and I are about the same age and although lately he has been kicking my butt we generally are about the same ability level. I decided to hang with him in sight as I started getting my ultra legs moving. I was a little concerned about my Achilles injury because it still does not feel 100% healed. This course was advertised as 85% gravel road, 10% Level B road and 5% pavement. I am not sure on the actual percentages but running on gravel roads is a lot like running on pavement but add dust and small rocks. I was wearing gaitors to keep the dust and rocks out and it worked pretty good throughout the race. As is my usual modus operandi I was well hydrated. Tim and I would seesaw back and forth but he slowly opened about a 4 minute gap on me as I stopped to pee every 5 minutes. The hills also started from the get go in this section and you definitely had to keep your eye on the prize as those gravel roads stretched out for as far as your eye could see. Water was sparse in the first 20 miles and I had to rely on the aid stations at mile 10 and 23 to fill the blivet in my vest. You could definitely tell this race was put on my bike riders. Aid stations were a little too far apart for runners, traditionally they are about 7-10 miles apart and these were 10-12. They biggest thing though was the nutrition. Ultra runners come to expect certain things at an aid station. Real food, a helping hand filling up water etc.. The aid station volunteers were great but generally there was only one and all they had was Gatorade,Water and GU. Essentially I would run this entire race without real food until close to the end. This does effect your stamina. Especially if like me you have intentionally tried to avoid processed things like GU gels. I also wasted a lot of time at aid stations filling up my water. Just some constructive criticism. My half marathon time was approximately 2:20.

Mile 20-40

More of the same, it was during this section that the flats were hurting my feet.I  employed a run 3 electrical poles and walk one strategy on these sections. I actually looked forward to the hills as it gave me a chance to walk up hill and give my feet some relief. My right calf also started to have minor cramping. This is probably due to a gait imbalance I have developed due to my Achilles issues. I would have to stop during the remainder of the race and massage it occasionally to get the knot out. I reached the marathon distance in 5:20. I stopped at the 30 mile check point to change socks out of my drop bag. This was the last place I would see Tim. He had opened up about a 10 minute lead and was leaving as I was arriving to the aid station. We said hi and he was off as I rummaged through my bag. All of us racers were pretty spread out at this point. I was told that there were 2 people behind me which means some had dropped. I would not see another racer for the rest of the race. It was after mile 30 that my race went south for a while. It was the heat of the day and I was struggling with hydration a bit. I hit the 50K point in about 6:40. Luckily the race organizers had occasionally put out some unmanned water coolers along the road. The one at mile 35 literally saved my race. My water bladder was almost empty as I had drank it all in the 5 miles since the previous aid station. I filled the bladder and also poured water repeatedly over my head to cool off. That gave me the energy to continue. My biggest issue came at mile 37. To explain a bit, this course was unmarked. Ummarked meaning no arrows or signs like a normal ultra. We racers had to navigate using a list of right and left turns/road names on a piece of paper provided in our drop bags. Match this up with your mileage and easy enough right? Works well for bike riders I guess but I managed to screw it up. I had managed to get my paper wet when I was dumping water on my head and it was a little hard to read. This coupled with the fact I was a little out of it still, caused me to misread the paper and I took a right at an intersection instead of a left. I realized my mistake a little over a mile later when I saw a sign for a town we had run through back at mile 23. I realized I was heading the wrong way, cussed myself and turned around. My total out of route was 2.37 miles. Guess that's what you get for lacking attention to detail. The result of this little snafu was I lost about 30 minutes off my time.

Mile 40-62 (64)

The last 20 miles, as they are with most ultras was a gut check. I was walking a lot more and I had to grab my pepper spray 3 times for farm dogs that didn't like me approaching their territory. Lucky for them I didn't have to spray them. One encounter was resolved with a belly rub, and the other 2 were resolved with some strongly worded commands and a quickening of my pace. The hills never stopped and as darkness fell I hit the last aid station which was 8.5 miles from the finish. These folks knew how to run an ultra station. There was real food, pretzels,bananas,pbj, and coke. I remarked on this and discovered they were members of the GOATZ ultra club. They certainly saved my race as I chowed down and immediately felt stronger. I had run almost 13 hours and over 50 miles on nothing but water and GU gels. The real food was welcome. I could see that I was going to finish after dark so I put on my reflective vest and headlight and headed out. I could smell the barn but it was still a ways off. I kept moving forward relentlessly, running 3 poles and walking one, up the hill and down the hill. As I was nearing the end a car approached me and I recognized it. It was Tim who had finished over an hour before and he was checking on me. That was a great gesture and very much appreciated. After a few words of encouragement he let me know I was less than a mile from the finish. I decided to run it in the rest of the way. It was surreal as I ran in darkness down the gravel road. Lights in the distance and my headlamp creating a cone of visibility. I got closer and closer until I made the turn to the finish. I was met by the race director and congratulated on finishing. Out of 22 runners who started the race, 4 more had dropped out. I finished in 17th out of 18 in a time of 15:55:34. It was a good training and I think it prepared me for next month. It might be on the calendar for next year.

Sunderbruch Beer and Bacon Trail races 10K ish Race

Well I spent 45 minutes writing an outstanding race report for this awesome race. Then somehow my computer ate it. Soooo since I am not writing it again because you can't improve on perfection here are the highlights.

Great weather
Great Race
Much hills
Great Race
Beer
Bacon Cheeseburgers
Great Race
Root Beer

Seriously folks this was a great race and I will definitely do it again. The Quad Cities Trail and Ultra Runners know how to put on an event.

Thanks for all the Fish!!!

Donate to my efforts on behalf of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation

https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/michaelmcelmeel/blackhills100mileultra

Check out Team Red White and Blue

www.teamrwb.org

Check out some photos and Garmin data

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/502487177#.U3v91_Zy9HA.blogger

Garmin Connect Data

Letter to Mom

Mother,

I have struggled for weeks thinking what to give you for Mother's Day. What could I possibly get you that you didn't already have? What could I get you that would even remotely equal all you have given me? It was suggested I write you a nice card. I thought this might be more permanent plus my handwriting is terrible as we all know.

Mother you amaze me continually. Somehow you find time to treat each of your 6 children as if they were an only child. You involve yourself with each Grandkid and Great Grandkid. I am not sure how you find the time to volunteer at the marathon I am running, sew a quilt for a newborn, watch a 1 year old spill crayons, call people on their birthdays, run your business and be a wife to our Father for the last 50 years.

Mother you are the go to person in our family for everything from buying cars, school loans, planning parties, to how to make our computers run more efficiently. You are the glue that holds this family together. Without you we would just be a group of people that share the same last name. You make family a priority in a way that we children with our busy lives sometimes forget.

You are the most incredible woman I have ever met. Even these words just don't seem adequate. I am not sure what else I can say except I hope even one person feels about me the way I feel about you.

I love you Mom
Happy Mothers days

Running Beverly Park:The Video

Just messing with my Go Pro. If you listen hard you can hear me breathing hard uphill. Trail running is my time to relax and Beverly is one of my favorite places to do it.

Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Time for the yearly call for donations.. Don't be a dick!!!!

https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/michaelmcelmeel/blackhills100mileultra

Marion Marathon: The Second Running

So for my second running of this local marathon I was asked to be a pacer. If you don't know a pacer is a experienced marathon runner who leads a group of other runners at a specified pace so they can finish in a specified time. I guess after 27 marathon or longer races I was considered "experienced" and I was flattered.

Problem was I had been battling a injury all winter. A nagging slow to heal Achilles injury. I did manage to complete a 50K trail race in the weeks leading up to the marathon but it was not without issue. I was concerned about even finishing the marathon after my lackluster training cycle. Because of this I asked to pace the 5 hour and 25 minute group.This would be my slowest marathon ever.

The day of the race came and myself and all my friends that were pacing showed up to a cold rainy and sucky day. We talked and milled around the start line until the National Anthem. I then lined myself up in the back of the pack. Brian was going to accompany me. He had decided to run the race at the last minute and asked if he could co-pace with me. I was happy for his company. Jenn was also there with few new friends. 

The gun went off and we started off at the planned 12:23 per mile pace. I had my Garmin set to the proper pace and a pace chart taped to the back of my pacer sign. I was nervous because I figured the hardest part about this race was going to be running slow enough. We settled into a pattern of running easy and walking at the mile markers. It was raining at the start but eventually it stopped. I took off my rain jacket and tied it around my waist. Other runners passed us and we passed them. I continued to keep pace even when no one was with is because I knew from past experience that others would use us as a guide even if they weren't with us. About mile 17 it started pouring rain and we would finish the race in the downpour. Brian and I kept on pace but we had somehow built a 3 minute buffer. Our plan was to walk off the extra at mile 25 and then run it in to the end. So that is want we did. However we didn't count on the course being half a mile too long. Our finishing time wa 5:26:12. Not my best effort but next time I will do better and lessons were learned. Enjoy some photos

PTSD: Are We Damaged

So another shooting at Fort Hood. This time by someone the media is labeling as having mental health issues and possible PTSD. They are not focusing on the victims but are pushing the narrative of the damaged perpetrator that must have something wrong because he was in combat for 4 months. Of course he was mental and violent he was in the Army wasn't he?

Post traumatic stress is experienced by many people after many traumatic incidents. Rape survivors,firefighters, police, car accident victims, and of course military and former military members. Out of all these groups why are military members looked on as "crazy" or damaged goods? Why are veterans killing themselves at the rate of 21 individuals daily? This perception and it's results are a national tragedy. A unfortunate genocide of some of our nation's best and brightest. 

I think this is happening because the public generally and our media and politicians in particular have no common ground with the all volunteer force that is our nations armed forces. It has been well documented that the amount of veterans in Congress has dropped from a majority in the late 60's and 70's to a small fraction currently. Veterans are perceived as being outside the herd. Additionally,the circumstances from which most military PTSD results, are subconsciously not acceptable to the general public. Rape victims or car crash survivors have support and sympathy from the public. They are usually blameless and unfortunate victims of circumstance. Law enforcement and Firefighters are for the most part looked on as heroes and rescuers. The events that cause PTSD in these folks on looked on as righteous and good. Society needs these actions and there are generally no arguments about their validity or necessity.

Military members on the other hand do not fit into these convenient categories. The mission of military members is to close with and destroy the enemy. This is the crux. For good or bad, military members are ultimately killers. That is their job, the job they are asked to perform so the rest of us don't have to. The job that is necessary in the defense of this nation. 

Killing is anathema to most in society. Only psychopaths kill without remorse so those in the military that do kill must be victims and should be pitied. If they are not victims then logically they must be psychopaths. So no matter how many disingenuous Pavlovian utterances of " Thanks for your service" are heard, the underlying societal vibe is one of disgust and disconnection. Soldiers themselves often feel guilt for their actions wether they ever killed anyone or not. Deep down they realize the revulsion that society has for their mission and the fact that the emotions they feel cannot be accepted or supported by the general public. This coupled with the loss of the close personal ties associated with military service often causes despair and depression. But not permanently unless we allow it.

Military members do not consider themselves victims nor do they consider themselves heroes for just doing their job. They see themselves as professionals and protectors. When they do return home it is our job to accept and support them in a meaningful and tangible way. We need to engage them, not label them.