Running 14+ with help from the ladies

Let me start by saying I love running. I started out this morning in Indian Wells (close to Palm Springs). My goal was to get in a long run on some trails that left the Living Desert Zoo. I started running  from my hotel on the road with palm trees lining my path and my goal in my sights. 

My goal was to run Eisenhower Peak the Mt. in the background of this picture. So after about 4.5miles I got to the entrance of the Living Desert Zoo.

http://www.livingdesert.org/ which is a fun zoo to take your kids to by the way. 

Upon arriving at the zoo entrance I relized that I really didn't know where the hiking/running trails even started. So naturally I took the opportunity to talk to this elderly woman who looked like she was going on an African Safari. Let my paint the picture: a little old lady wearing a full brimmed safari hat, safari long sleeve tech shirt, convertible pants/shirts, hiking boots, and sun glasses attached with a lanyard hanging around her neck. All the clothes were either green or tan. Anyways I walked up to the old safari explorer and say,"do you know how to get to the hiking trails?" Silly question I know....she looks ready to go into the wild. But she was very nice in an awesome grandmotherly type of way. She explained that the trails were located within the park and that you had to pay an admission fee to the park to access the trails. I was like ,"aw man." She replied with a smile, "I have a season pass and I get free guest passes." 

After free admission I was off and running through the desert. 

With the zoo and the valley at my back I had the freedom to enjoy the hills. After 7.5 of running I rounded a corner and at a picnic table sat a group of ladies. 

L

"Hey runner! Come join us!" They said excitedly. "We have chocolate! Do you want some?" Walking up to the group with I smile, "I'll take some chocolate." It was like a full aid station at an ultra marathon... Chocolate, fruit, bars, an assortment of liquids, trail mix, etc. I spent 10-15 just hanging out, eating, and talking about zip lines. It was just what I needed in the middle of a run. They were very graceous and wanted to give me more food than I needed and they wanted to give me tequila. 

Renergized from interactive fuel station I continued down the trail. I was blessed with views of the valley and awesome trail. Once I hit the pavement again I had a full blown runners high that carried me to the finish. 

For full stats from my run click on the link below. If you have garmin add me user name: gfizzell 

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/692916719

Part 1: Cool Zip Lines & Challenge Courses I have built

While working at Synergo, I have had an opportunity to build some amazing stuff and work with some awesome people. 

1) Yosemite Zip Tour and Adventure Ranch 

http://yosemiteziptours.com/zipline-tour/

This Zip Tour is located near Yosemite National Park in a nice little town named Mariposa. Brad, Jake, Chander, and I built this Zip Tour in about 2 weeks. It was very hot and dusty at the time of the build. We all wore bandannas as dust masks. Victoria (one of the owners) made Brad and I strawberry lemonades every day, it was great! Bryan (co-owner) and his crew of bushwackers toting chainsaws made quick work of the trees that blocked the corridors. Brad and I also ate enough licorice to make a fat kid jealous. Overall it was a super fun build and is a great tour to go and check out. 

2) Camp Orkila- Climbing Tower and Twin 1000' foot Zip Lines 

http://www.seattleymca.org/Locations/Orkila/Pages/Home.aspx

Brad, Andy, Tyler, and Tim spend about 3 months on Orcas Island in Washington. At first the job was pretty enjoyable. The weather was good and we had time after work to go for a run or go fishing (Brad's after work activity) in the day light. But as time went on the weather got so nasty. The tower is located in a field and get slammed by wind. Mix that with cold day time temps and rain and you've got a cold wet bunch of guys. The Climbing Tower is the tallest building on Orcas Island at 76' tall. There is climbing on both the outside and inside of the climbing tower. Working all of the daylight hours and spending weeks away from our families was really hard on us. Running and Brad helped keep me sane. The Tower is beautiful and the zip lines are fast.  If you find yourself on Orcas Island go and check it out.

3) Tree to Tree Adventure Park 

http://tree2treeadventurepark.com/ 

Ahhh my first job with Synergo. What an amazing experience. Working with Brad, Andy, Tim, and many others I learned a lot about building challenge course elements very quickly. I got to jump right into action using my creativity to dream up elements that I could build with what we had on hand.  Working in the climbing world for most of professional career, this was a natural progression. I built around 30 elements, 20-30 platforms, and 4 or 5 zip lines. The courses are really fun and should not be missed.  If you live or visit the Portland area. 

This is the first part of a multi-part series. 

Flagline 50k - My First Ultra

Me, Garrett (Prefontaine), Jon  

Sept. 21 - 3:30am - I am wide awake and thinking "Why am I awake and did the Ducks win?" Checking the phone I am surprised that they didn't win by more but a W is a W. I went to bed at half time the night before. I then started worrying about the race and thinking I NEED to get back to sleep. Finally fell back to sleep at 4:30am.

5:15am - Awake before my alarm again.... Okay so it was only 15min before when I wanted to get up. Eat and hydrate are a must. I think to myself "Why the HELL 'em I doing this..... that's right I've always got to push myself to my limits.
6:00am- Thank you Holly for dropping Jonathan and I off at Garrett's house so early in the morning.
6:45am- Where's the Porta Potty!! Jon, Garrett and I all unload for the last time before the race. And where are my calf sleeves?? Can't find them, oh well I don't need them anyways! "Wait for me bro!" I jump into the van still wearing bball shorts over my running pants because they were about to leave me and I didn't want to add 1/2 mile to the race. Luckly they let me ditch them in the van.
7:00am - Start Line Mile 0- Let's do this!! We were all pumped up and ready to go. Official start time was some time around 7:03. The pace felt really slow as our first mile was 10:52 but I glad we started so slow.

Feeling good ~mile 15

The 1st Aid Station ~mile 7ish - average pace at this point is around 10:15/mile. Most of the trail up to this point was single and double track in the forest. Pretty easy. Only had to walk a few hills. Garrett, Jon, and I were all in good spirits and felt good. I ate some red vines, grapes, peanut M &M's. We hungout there for longer than I wanted to at this point of the race. I really wanted to keep going because I felt great.
~10 mile - Let the up hill hiking begin. The Next 3 miles were all uphill we went from about 6000' to 7000' in elevation.
~11 miles- 9:05 am - The Pro Races that started an hour after us are already starting to pass us! I can't believe how fast they are up these steep hills!! 
~13 miles - What the heck is going on in my pants!!!! It's felt like sand paper between my legs. I thought I might have to stop. But I took a gamble. I ran off into the forest and got Naked. Well almost. Took off my compression shorts and just wore my running shorts (which had a built in brief). Best thing I did. I CAN DO THIS!!

~14 miles - Aid station 2- We are all looking and feeling good at this point except for the fire between my legs. Thank goodness that stopped!! More red vines and grapes for me.

~Between 14 and 17- We had great views, river crossings, and alpine meadows, and rolling hills. Best part of the course. We started to get worried about Garrett because he wasn't eating and not drinking as much as he should. 

~ Aid Station 3 - Mile 17.5 - Popsicles are the Best!!! Got down on two of those bad boys! Garrett and Jon also got some of that action. mmmmm gummy bears and m & m's!! We spent awhile here as the hills had taken a toll on our bodies.

~ miles 17-21- Were just nasty running down dirt/gravel roads with hunters wearing camo flying past us blanketing us in dirty. Some where along this stretch we lost Garrett.

~ miles 21-24.5 Jon started to pull away as I hit the wall. Walking most of it. My muscles did not want to move and I had to will myself to even run the few flat and down hill sections. This sound like a good idea 2 months ago.

We Love Pop slices! 

Aid Station 4 ~24.5 miles - Walked into the aid station and wanted to be done. I was wearing a superman shirt for the race and a lady asked, "What do you need superman?" I replied," Remove the Kryptonite from the course!" I had to force feed myself a Popsicle, goldfish, m & m's, and gummy bears. If felt like a pile of _____. I sat down in a chair and I didn't think I could get back up. Jon hooked my up with drugs (I love drugs!). I was really worried about Garrett as I saw tons of other runners coming in to the Aid Station. Finally Prefontaine (AKA Garrett) comes running in!!!! He cannot eat anything of substance and needed to rest so Jon and I took off.

~ miles 24.5 - 26 - Was Mostly downhill and flat and I COULD NOT RUN! Believe me I tried for 30s-1 min at a time. I stopped at a creek and dunked my head and almost pasted out. This was my lowest point. Surprising after taking like a 10 min break Garrett catches up to me. He said, "I had to catch up some how." He gave me motivation to keep up the fight. We ran most of the section until the next check point.

Tanner give me a 5

~mile 27.7- Last Aid Station - Why in the world does Coke and Sprite taste so good??!?! Walking the hill right after this check point and letting the foreign substance soak in (pop...I haven't drank it for 10+ years) gave me the strength to finish strong.

~ mile 28.5 - Coke is the anti-kryptonite for this Superman and I think the drugs finally kicked in. I ran until I hit the Mt. Bachelor service road around mile 30. This road was the worst section of the whole race. Hot, steep, paved and down right nasty. I mustered up the strength to run parts of this hill knowing that I was almost there. When I popped over the hill and could see the end I knew that I could run the rest (and I had to....I was wearing a superman shirt after all.) If I had a pink barbie shirt on I could have walked and got away with it...maybe.

The best part was seeing my family right before the finish line and giving Tanner a high five. This carried me to the finish. 

One of my favorite quotes comes to mind when I think about this experience.

“Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Christopher Robin to Pooh

My Family at the end of the Race

My official time was 6:52:55. I placed 99 out of 130. I didn't get hurt and I learned a lot about myself.

http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/596484636

I couldn't have done it without the support and love of Katie my awesomely beautiful wife, Garrett and Jon for running and sharing this experience with me. 

Gavin Hill Trail in Sitka Alaska

Solo hike on 8/26/2012

Details: I did an out and back from the Harbor/ Gavin Shelter

Destination	Distance (one way/round trip) Time (one way/round trip)
Muskeg Viewpoint	.05 miles/.1 miles 2-5 minutes/5-10 minutes
Overlook	1.5 miles/3 miles 35 minutes-1.5 hours/1.5-3 hours
Gavan Ridge	2 miles/4 miles 45 minutes-2 hours/2-4 hours
Summit	3.5 miles/7 miles 1.5-3 hours/3-6 hours
Harbor-Gavan Shelter	3.75 miles/7.5 miles 2-4 hours/4-8 hours

  My Stats:

Distance:	7.59 mi
Time:	2:54:59
Avg Pace:	23:04 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	2,959 ft

This was a solo after work hike. I road a bike to the trail head and ditched it in the bushes about 1/4 mile in. 

Trail started out nice and easy. But soon I was walking on planks and gaining elevation quickly. This was a rain forest and as soon as you stepped off of the trail you would sink into mud. 

These planks went on for miles. Someone has put in a lot of work to make this trail usable. If it wasn't for the planks I would have needed knee high rubber boots (aka Xtra Toughs the boot that all the Alaskans wear here.)  

This is the view from the Overlook. In the center of the bay you can see a giant cruise ship. 

Let the stair climbing continue! I should have counted the steps.....

View of Arrowhead Peak. I hiked this one earlier in the week. 

Some sections were quite steep. I didn't need this rope but I thought it would make for a good picture anyway. The rope was more useful in descent than ascent. 

 Gavin Hill Summit ahead. The trail turned into a rolling hill traverse with great views of the surrounding mountains and ocean. 

Gavin Ridge. Much drier up here I had a rare chance to soak up the rays. Sitka is know for its rain. 

Harbor Mountain in the background. 

 Gavin Shelter in the distance. Took me 1 hr 35 min. There was a guy camping out in it with a large riffle. Didn't take a close up shot of it. 

 Wuzzzuppp! Look at the mountains behind me. Next time....

Which way is the beach???!? Harbor Mtn behind me. 

Endless stairs on the down climb!!! This is also the way I came up. Good workout. 

Plank run. Warning: You may get motion sickness if you watch this.... enjoy. 

Garmin Map and Full Stats:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/217176972

Mt. Verstovia and Arrowhead Peak

Mt. Verstovia and Arrowhead Peak - August 26th, 2012

View from a boat of Mt. Verstovia and Arrowhead Peak

Destination	Distance (one way/round trip) Time (one way/round trip)
First Viewpoint (800 ft)	.75 miles/1.5 miles 20-45 minutes/45-90 minutes
Second Viewpoint	1.25 miles/2.5 miles 45-75 minutes/1-2.5 hours
Picnic Rock (Peak 2550)	2.5 miles/5 miles 1.5-3 hours/3-6 hours
Summit (aka Arrowhead Peak)	3.5 miles/7 miles 2-4 hours/4-8 hours

We started hiking around Noon. The trail is quite steep, rocky, with a fair bit of scrambling near Arrowhead Peak. 

View from the top of  Picnic Rock

We took a long break to rest at Picnic Rock before heading up Arrowhead. The Volcano in the background is Mt. Edgecombe the peak I wanted to climb today but we had to turn around because the water was to rough for the little boat we were in . 

Taking a break with Arrowhead in the background

In-between Picnic and Arrow head there was a saddle. After that you climb the far right side of the arrow and the Scramble up the backside which you can not see in the picture above. 

Moving around the backside of the Arrowhead

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/217176930

My Stats for the hike. 

Overall it was a great hike and a better workout. 

One of the many beautiful views