It's been over a year since I've written here. I've been very busy with family-work-and training for very long deranged ultra races and things.
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| My rock and beautiful wife Brittany |
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| Summit of La Plata Peak |
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| Forgot to write about World's Toughest Mudder 2014 |
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| The boys |
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| My dad Henry and I |
DNF's.........AKA____Did Not Finish
DNF.....DANT ...DANT ...DAhh.. It is an acronym that most endurance athletes know all too well. A scary word that lurks behind every race corner. DNF's can come without warning, but most the time you know it's coming.
I don't feel like these races get any easier..I think I just get more stubborn, but no one is immune to a DNF. Ultra marathon race speaking fortunately I've only failed once before at The Leadville 100 run in 2013 (missing a cut off time.) but finished it in 2014. I have now failed twice at GORUCK Selection classes 015 and 017 during the PT test by way of the 5 mile run which is a 5 mile run that must be completed in 40 minutes or less and must be done without a watch. Class 015 I was coming off a huge year of ultra marathons. two 50 mile trail run races leading up to the Leadville 100 in August so I was very strong on endurance and simply overlooked the run as I thought it was a shoe in. The heat of 015 was unreal and that taught me the importance of being adapted to your race environment. I watched closely as Class 016 went by and 24 hours in everyone had quit. I decided to give up on ultra marathons for 2015 leading up to Class 017 mainly because they had conditioned my body to running too slow. I could run forever, but to succeed at Selection I knew I had to reprogram that for a much faster pace. January 2015 came and I had went through the Wendler 531 program and made serious gains in strength and put on some mass. Looked at a dry erase board and started slapping down my weaknesses first and then my strengths. Let's look at weaknesses first: Speed..good ole speed which used to be the backbone of my athleticism. Speed won me a scholarship where you run around fast and catch footballs and then run quickly away from people that are trying to tackle you. Ironically I misplaced speed somewhere along this ultra marathon journey, but I knew I could find it again. I got in contact with a Selection finisher; probably the most humble man I know and he resides in Colorado like me. Followed his programming for more than 6 months and found my speed again and also found super gains in every measurable sense of the word gains. Thanks again for all the time you gave me Chris!!! I had ran the 5 miles at an altitude of 7,346ft several minutes below the standard of 40 minutes so I knew at a lower elevation of 4,795ft I would kill it. Weaknesses were cut down and I maintained my strengths. Mentally I was on fire which had me feeling eerily calm. The week leading up to Bozeman Class 017 my game time nerves finally kicked in and I was highs and lows just wanting the event to begin already. Event day I woke up around 8am without an alarm clock feeling like I was ready to play in the Super Bowl. Went through my gear and made sure I had everything ready to roll. Ate big and took a walk around the hotel just to keep from sitting in my room locked up like a lion at a zoo. Blink of an eye I had aced the pushups and sit-ups part of the PT test making both minimum rep numbers in the first minute of the allotted 2 minute time limit. Next was the run and what i forgot to tell you is how much water I drank leading up to this point. I was wired and to calm my nerves i was chugging water from my nalgene bottle as they allowed us to carry these with us for the PT test which was much different then class 015 I was in where I drank no water for the duration of the PT test..anyway I'm nervously drinking my way into an electrolyte imbalance which at the time I thought I was a genius for drinking so much water and getting ahead of hydration because I knew sure as hell I would need it for the welcome party. WRONG!!! oh so wrong. Rewind back to all my training I trained on minimal water and zero food. My body had adapted to performing at a high level without much water whatsoever. For example I would do 9 mile runs with no water. press play to the event day and i'm guzzling down water like Tom Hank's character in the movie Cast Away!!! My body didn't need that and deep down I knew I shouldn't alter my hydration like that, but I've never been over hydrated in my life so I just kept drinking away. The run was next and we lined up listened to route direction and took off. I took off on what felt like 7:37 minute/mile pace and I was just in front of the middle of the pack. Hit what felt like mile 2 and my calves started twitching all types of crazy--then my hamstrings. Cramps!? I almost chuckled to myself out loud. I never cramp__ever. I keep trucking along, but my legs feel like I have ankle weights on them and they were becoming locked up from calf to hamstring. Tears started to from up because it didn't feel fast enough to make time. With Cadre Garet insight now with the finish a few hundred yards I pushed in as hard as I could to be 21 seconds too late. The guy right in front of me was short by 9 seconds. And like that years of training came to an abrupt halt. It was one of those moments where your brain is literally spinning inside your head and you feel powerless. So many people invested loads of time and I let them down..again..I let myself down again. I was ready, my mind was confused at his point like it was all a trick and it wasn't for real. Lesson learned____Don't drink so much damn water. <---oh cool what a great lesson. Bottom line do not, I repeat do not change up nutrition or hydration drastically leading into game day and especially on game day. I was trained to be a camel, but I hydrated like a shark.
I have always overcome/conquered and claimed redemption at an event-race-sport and I've never quit or walked away from a race. All my DNFs have come from missing cut off times, but a DNF is a DNF even if it's not your choice. Failing is hard. No one wants to fail, but when we enter into these nearly impossible events failing is something we must learn to shake off quickly because its going to happen, but that's much easier said than done! I would be lying if I told you after failing both selections I wasn't in a mental funk for a while where training was my least priority and getting refocused can be tough to do. To train and invest so much time and energy into it and to come up short is rough. This is where you must learn how to bounce back. It may take a while to get back in the saddle and buy into the cumbersome process again of such intense physical and mental training. Fear not! the fog will rise and if the goal/race is important enough you will most likely sign up again. 3rd times a charm right (Stony Smith!?) <~~ he was the sole finisher of Selection class 017 8-20-2015 in Bozeman, Montana. He's had his share of let downs in events and injury hurdles to jump over. I started chatting with Stony several months before class 017. I could tell right off the bat that he has ice in his veins and never backs down. I followed him online in some previous selection classes and had a feeling he would return.
This event is unique to most other events or races in that going in...you know for certain that a very very small percentage will pass. Looking past the odds Stony, me and close to a dozen of other multi attempters went back to selection wiser and more physically prepared. Stony stood out early on during the (welcome party_which in Selection is a 4 hour super fast paced beat down and physical fitness session that includes tons of yelling by the cadre (guys who direct the event.) - wearing your 55+ ruck, bearcrawls, pushups, water, duck walks, over head movements, foot races, water PT, and many..many..many more and Stony's mental game was incredible through this. Stony stood out physically too as he won the vast majority of the welcome party and as many know "it pays to be a winner." Congrats again Stony!!! Amazing to follow your story and get to meet you and your wife. You give a tangible meaning to perseverance. Stony had some to share about his 2 previous failed attempts at classes 014 and 015."""After not passing Selection 014, I was pretty bummed –I think it was because I had every intent to pass –I don’t think it would have been a big deal if I hadn’t put my intentions to the world –I let everyone know I was going to do it.... and everyone watched as I failed, then I came home to my son with bad news –it ate at me for a while, mulling over what I could have done different –but as time went on the anguish of defeat subsided and turned into a game plan for the next one –I was able to turn the suffering into a plan of attack for Selection 015, which didn’t work out... but that failure combined with the first failure I was able to come up with a plan that worked for me in Selection 017. You will have failures, learn from them and learn from others -use them to make your own plan. The PT and brutality was nothing compared to me telling my son I VW’d""" (Voluntary Withdrawal/Quit)
GORUCK Selection is a one of a kind gruesome event where the past handful of classes either no one finishes_or 1 does. Yeah 1 Finisher..maybe. Class 015 had something like 80+ start and 1 finish. So less than 1ish% chance of finishing. Class 016 had Zero finishers. Class 017 had 1 Finisher. An event like Selection is hard to train for knowing that 99% of the participants will fail. This event needs such a mental and physical buy in it's hard for people not training for it to understand. People say to me _well isn't it like your other races or runs? No :) No it's not anything like those. I can get up any given day and go run 50 miles-it may be ugly, but I can get that done. That's just running not to take away from that, but this is much much more difficult. Selection is something else and in it's own genre of endurance. Going to these Selection events I have met some amazing people all in peak physical shape. It's the mental side that is key for Selection. <----That term gets thrown around too much in the endurance world. "Its all mental." But that holds very true to Selection. In terms of races most 100 mile trail races have a finish rate of 20-60%..some have more some have less. Leadville 100 sits in the 40'%s for most years. GORUCK Selection has a less than 3% pass rate for the last majority of classes and they market a cumulative less than 5% pass rate. So do I keep going after this event!? The easy answer would be No! Just stick with ultra marathons and mountaineering and run some more 100 mile races setting aim on a "20 time finisher" at The Leadville 100--stick to what I know I can complete where the probability of finishing goes up exponentially. As the famous rapper Drake would say " I go 0 to 100, ****, real quick!!!!" I could choose to do a ton of different ultra/adventure races that would be more fun and give me a much higher chance of finishing. That would be the cowardice thing of me to do. Knowing that I have what it takes to complete GORUCK Selection sits in my mind like a brick. The common sense and rational part of my mind says give up on that dude!!! Move on!!! The primitive and competitive side of my mind says "Don't you dare stop training for that event, you can finish!!!" So I will be back. Class 018 which is 10-13-2016 in Bellbrook,Ohio elevation 778 ft.
I am forecasting the largest Selection class in history since the event will be offered only one time in 2016. Here's to seeing you all there, You are the wild ones!!!
Until then the short term sights are set on World's Toughest Mudder in Vegas which is coming up in November. This has turned into a yearly tradition for me and will be my 4th year in a row.
I've received a ton of support from the community and I am very thankful to be going this year. What is World's Toughest Mudder!? It's a 24 hour Obstacle Course Race where you log as many miles as you can going around a 5-10 mile course. I've logged 72+ hours and 160+ miles at this race thus far. Mileage goal this year is to add another 75 miles onto that total which would tally up to a solid 235 "WTM" Miles.
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| 60 mile finish in 2013 |
The one thing I have learned from these races is that you gotta BOUNCE when things don't go as planned_ You must be able to throw your game plan out and adapt to what's in front of you even if it is a DNF. The best part is the wisdom unlocked from these races as they directly translate into everyday life giving a refreshing perspective. The further you travel down the rabbit hole of ultra endurance racing DNF(s) will greet you at some point, you just have to be ready to bounce back!!! Read below for more info on that.
"Bounce. I once heard it said that some people hit rock bottom and they splatter, others bounce. I’ve realized over the years that one of the most integral elements of the champion that inevitably separates him from the pack is resilience. Not giving in, not giving up. Sacrificing their pound of flesh, eating their bushel of dirt and coming back for seconds. Not that we all must endure a cataclysmic meltdown every other day and be face down in the gutter, it all needn’t be so dramatic. But whatever path you travel, there will undoubtedly be rocky terrain, hurdles, potholes and roadblocks—some big and some small. You’ve gotta let that shit slide, let it roll like water off of a jacked duck’s back. Become slick and slippery, aerodynamic, impervious to the friction and static that you’ll no doubt feel everyday living life against the grain. You’ve gotta roll with the punches and hit back harder. Like my Pops used to tell me as a kid, to make it you’ve gotta have thick skin. Anticipate the bad breaks and hard knocks that will come your way—the murmurs and whispers, the venom spit in your face. Prepare with confidence for the hard times, knowing you’re harder than any of the shit fate wants to throw in your direction. Remember always that a man armed with a dream is a dangerous man indeed. When his back’s against the wall, he doesn’t back down, when he eats the floor face first he doesn’t stay down for long. He responds with a roar, he comes back with purpose, he hits the ground with a bounce."
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