Taking Time For The Trails

When I got the email from Keith to go out on March 27th to do some trail work on the PCT, I jumped on the opportunity. So I emailed Ken to RSVP and just waited for the day to come. We met up at Cibbets Flats at 0600 and car pooled up to the Roost. As we tried to stay warm we gathered up our gear and headed down to the PCT. The plan was start at Dale's Kitchen and clean up the trail back down to Cibbets Flats.

Front to back: Todd, Dave, Jim, Madonna, Mary and Ken

I thought this was going to be an easy task. I had brought my running gear and planned on doing a 6-10 mile run afterwards. Keyword being planned.

Belle

Once we got down to Dale's Kitchen Ken gave us a quick safety brief and we were on our way. Luckily Keith brought his camera, I somehow always forget mine.

Dave and Belle

As we got to working I realized that this was more work then I expected. I'm sorry to say that I didn't even know what a lopper was until Saturday. But by the end of the day I was an expert at using a lopper. I had a fun time and I got to meet some great people. The best part was we were able to give back to those trails that we all love to run on.

Top Row, left to right: Keith, Art, Me, Jim and Ann
Bottom Row, left to right: Dave, Todd, Enrique, Madonna, Ken, Mary, Linda, Glenda

Although we didn't finish everything we still had a successful day. Ken's wife, Anita, made some delicious food for us. Once back down to Cibbets Flats we got to grub on that delicious food. As you can see pictured below.

Thank you Ken and Keith for setting all this up. Thank you Anita for the wonderful food. I'm looking forward to the next chance to give back to those trails. By the way, I was too tired for that run. Until next time, Happy Running!

Jerry "El Tigre" England

What A Great Race

We ran the Oriflamme 50K Saturday March 20th and there were nothing but great results. Pictured above from left to right is Josh, Jim, myself and Dan. The four of us planned on finishing anywhere from 7 to 8 hours. We all ended up doing better, a lot better. This was Jim's first ultra and Dan's second. I was using this race as a training run for the San Diego 100.

John Martinez and myself

The Oriflamme is a new race and I must say John "El Cubano" Martinez did a perfect job as always. Thank you for such a great race John. And of course there is no race without those wonderful volunteers out there for us crazy folks. Thank you all!

The day started cold but then again I'm always cold. Due to it being cold I didn't get to mingle much before the race but I made up for it afterwards. I walked up to the start as John was on his 2 minute count down and just then Jim was walking out of the out house. We said our goodlucks and 5-4-3-2-1 and we're off at a blazing 2 MPH walk. When you have 80-100 runners on single track trail it bottle necks at first. The first 5 miles are all single track and there was a ton of traffic. As you see below we almost look like a cult walking to the top of a ridge.

Right before I got to to the Mason Valley Truck Trail Jeff caught up to me and we worked our way through the traffic. Once we got to to the truck trail Jim was a good 1/4 mile ahead. Knowing that we'd have to climb back up the canyon we took full advantage of the down hills and put the pedal down. Once Jeff and I finally caught up to Jim, Dan had caught up to us. The four of us, the three J's and Dan, took it easy on this flat section before we headed down the canyon.

The flat section before we go down. From left to right: Dan, Jeff and Jim.

We once again put that pedal down, to the best of our ability, as soon as the downhills came. The road leading down isn't your average gravel road as you can see below.


Unfortunately we ran into a runner that had twisted his ankle pretty bad. That's when we met Gretchen who was giving this poor guy some advice and pain relievers. We believe she told him to be a man and run it off. No, I'm just playing. She was being a typical ultra runner and taking time from her race to assist another runner.

Front to back: Zhi and Dave
We made it down to the first aid station where I saw some familiar faces. A few guys I work with were volunteering there. It's always nice to see familiar faces and aid stations. We were in and out and back on the trail in no time. From the first aid station to the next one, is a flat 5 mile section. Two problems with this section, your in the hot sun and at times it's like quick sand. At this point it's still the 3 J's (Jim, Jeff, myself and Dan). We met up with Gretchen and Rebecca and headed to the next aid station. Dan and I learned a lesson on this section. Lesson being don't take your eyes off the trail while taking pictures. We both ended up into some bushes.

San Diego Bad Rats Aid Station

The next aid station was loaded with rats, the San Diego Bad Rats. It only took me my first ultra to notice that anyone representing the Bad Rats is fast as hell. Not only did they take the day off from racing to assist us, they also made sure you were in and out and on your way. Thank you Bad Rats and everyone else at aid station #2.



Blair Valley: Jim, Dan and Jeff with his family.
The next section, Blair Valley, was mostly flat and sandy as we headed from aid station #2 to the turn around. John had stickers for us at the turn around and depending what sticker you grabbed, you could have won a prize. I just grabbed the first one I saw, a monkey. I'll spoil the ending... I didn't win a prize but Dan did. He got a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters. The turn around is when my legs started feeling tired. Maybe it's the fact that we got down there a little after 2 1/2 hours of running. Which isn't fast for most but for me it was. Dan, Jim and Jeff were looking great at this point and we were headed back to the Bad Rats station. I refilled my backpack with some water, took some pictures and we were headed back to the Oriflamme Canyon. Jeff was no longer with us but we finally found Josh. We lost one J and picked up another J.

Front to back: Josh, Dan and Jim

This would be the last I would see of Dan and Jim until the finish. Josh and I went up ahead and I was feeling great. So good that I ended up running ahead on my own. This is where I was surprised to see Doc (Dr. Runco). I found out he was fighting the flu all week and was feeling nauseous. He still finished with what I would call a good time.

Aid station #1 on the way back






Once leaving this aid station it's all uphill for a good 5 miles. I got to take some good pictures and work on my walking. I was able to run (walk) with Josh for a good portion of this section. That made the time and miles go by faster. But at this point you just look forward to finishing.

One of my last looks at Oriflamme Canyon

Once up and out of Oriflamme we have another 2 miles on the Mason Valley Truck Trail until we hit the PCT. Along this part I ran with Sean. I was trying to learn as much as I could from Sean about 100 milers. He gave me some great advice. Once we hit the PCT he was off toward the finish. I had to slow down my pace because my stomach turned on me. Now I was really ready to get to that finish line.

Sean heading towards the finish

Around mile 25 I noticed I had a shot to actually finish in under 6 hours. I dug deep and pushed myself all the way to the finish. When I crossed the Sunrise Highway I knew I could do it. Once I saw those tents I had enough in me to sprint to the finish.

I did it! I finished in 5 hours and 56 minutes. Although I started the day thinking 7-8 hours I somehow got under 6. Jim and Dan both finished their first 50K's and they did a great job. I want to thank all the volunteers and John because we know without them there would be no race. I also have to thank my wonderful wife for putting up with all my long training days.

I did want to take it easy since it was a training run for the San Diego 100 miler but I'm glad I pushed myself. I now have more confidence going ahead. My goal for the 100 miler is to finish. Even if I finish in 30 hours I'll still be ecstatic. But the most important thing is that I raise awareness and money for the Wounded Warrior Project. There are 2 links on the side of this blog to get to my personal donation page. I'll also include one right here that you can copy and paste:

http://WWPProudSupporter.kintera.org/rookietrailrunner

Thank you all and until next time, Happy Running!
Jerry "El Tigre" England

All set up!

http://WWPProudSupporter.kintera.org/rookietrailrunner



Everything is falling into place. I've finally setup the blog and now I've got my Wounded Warrior donation page setup. There are two ways to get to the donation page. First is the link in between the two banners on this post. Which you can copy and paste. The second way, on the right side of this page is a link labeled Wounded Warrior page. Once again, my goal is to raise $1,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project by participating in my first 100 mile endurance run. Any and all support is appreciated. Financially by donating, words of encouragement, as a crew member to assist me or they always need volunteers at the race. Until next time, happy running!

Jerry "El Tigre" England

About Time

I've been putting this blog off since May 9, 2009. I know it was May 9th because that was the day I finished my first ultra marathon. The race was the PCT 50 and during the 12 hours and 37 minutes it took me to finish the race, I had plenty of time to think. One of those thoughts was to start a blog. I figured a blog would help me raise awareness and money for certain charities I plan on running for. Oh ya, now my mom can always check the blog if I don't call for a couple of days. I love you mom!

I'll start with my main reason for this blog, to raise awareness. To do that I'll start from the beginning. Please bear with me, I'll try to make this long story short. When I started training for the San Francisco Marathon in the spring of 2008 I had no clue what I was getting into. I actually hated running but wanted to challenge myself plus I was drinking a lot in those days and I needed a reason to slow my roll. On my weekly long runs I noticed how much I enjoyed myself. Each Saturday run would be a personal best, yes even the 5-6 mile runs. After 4 months of training, race day came. I ran the marathon with my training partner Gian. I'm the guy in the white shirt up in the picture. The other guy is my great friend Gian. We finished, not a fast time but mission was accomplished. I took 3 months off from running and went right back to old habits. After returning from a trip to my hometown of Lincoln Park, Michigan I was ready for a change. I was weighing over 200 pounds and living very unhealthy. I knew that running would help me. But I already did a marathon so I searched for an ultra marathon that I could have enough time to prepare for and give me a shot to finish. The PCT on May 9, 2009 was just that race.

My training for the months of December and January was nothing but road. I ran mostly up to and around Fiesta Island. In February Gian and I decided to go out to the trail we'd be running on, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Yes I talked him into joining me. That day we ran 16 miles and it was love at first sight or shall I say first run. That was the day I fell in love with trail running. It wasn't even a great day. The temperature was in the 30's and 40's and it poured down rain the last 10 miles. But I was looking forward to going back out the next weekend. Week after week we went out to the PCT to train. Some days we'd leave the house at 0400 and return around 8 PM. Each week was an adventure though, especially the nights we start running around midnight. All that training paid off though. At some point during that race I decided I was going to sign up for another ultra ASAP. Considering all the time and effort to train for an ultra I may as well put all my running toward a good cause. The easiest way I thought I could do this would be to start this blog. I'm sure I'll find out in the near future just how easy or hard it is to raise awareness and money for a cause through my blog.

I ended up running the San Diego Rock and Roll marathon a few weeks later with my wife (Frances), little brother (Dylan) and 4 other friends. All of whom ran there first marathon except for me. I also did exactly what I said and signed up for the Mount Disappointment 50 miler. Which I finished in 12 hours and 32 minutes. Next up was the Noble Canyon 50K but I unfortunately fractured my collar bone 2 weeks before the race. I wasn't able to run the race but was able to go support my fellow runners. Next on the racing agenda was the PCT V2.0 0n November 21st. My little brother, Dylan, flew out again to run this. This was going to be his and my fourth race for the year. He ran his first 50 miler in September and the Detroit marathon in October. We didn't do too well but we did finish in 12 hours and 15 minutes.

After all that running I still put off starting this blog. But Dylan and I signed up for the next step up... a 100 mile endurance run. We decided to run one in my backyard, the San Diego 100 mile endurance run. Finally during my training for this event I stopped procrastinating and here I am typing. What am I going to run for you may ask. Hopefully the Wounded Warrior Project if they allow me. I sent in my application yesterday to see if I can run to raise awareness and money for the WWP. If I get the approval I should have a link for those to donate. Until then I thank you for sticking with me up to this point and there will be more to follow.

Jerry "El Tigre" England