Treadhub

You can now read about my training at jamesmadson.treadhub.com

I am the designer and co-founder of Treadhub and hope you'll check it out.

Cheers!

SOB 50K

Awesome weekend at Mt. Ashland running the Siskiyou Out & Back 50K! The volunteers, RD's, friends and weather all made for a great time... GI & puking issues aside.

Started the day off like any race day, normal routine feeling nervous the whole time but trying to act like I wasn't. The race started with a good 8 miles of mostly downhill, I took it out a little fast, but tried to bring my pace back as much as I could. Probably could have slowed it a bit more. (Learning) Was feeling great as we approached the next several miles, taking GU's, drinking fluids, S-Caps while smiling and enjoying the beautiful day and talking with new friends.

Somewhere between mile 17-20 my stomach decided to stop processing. Yay! So as I took GU's and drank... it just sat there... then a couple miles later I decided I'd puke, which made me feel almost normal again and I continued on taking it slower with the liquids. Once mile 24 came around, I arrived to the aid station and was surprised to see my coach Yassine (Who deservingly decided to drop at mile 24 after running SD100 a couple weeks ago) and a little embarrassed to have him see me not really running. I felt like a kid trying to show his big brother how tough he was. Ran a .6 out and back, saw Yassine again and was handed some GU's and S-Caps for the last chunk of the race while getting some encouraging words. Ten seconds later when I was out of view, three huge hurls came out of my mouth. Ahhh, better.

The next 3 - 4 miles was a climb of 2500ft. Best part of the race (in hindsight). This was actually ok for me since it was basically all power hiking. Half way up I was doing alright... just kept pushing. Once I hit the snowfield it was tricky since I hadn't had a GU in over an hour and wasn't having much hydration, felt dizzy and nauseous but pushed to the next aid station.

About a mile of walking and jogging past the aid station, I was still nauseous so I decided to down most of my water bottle and push on my stomach. Everything, and I mean everything, came out. Then I felt good, good enough to run and jog to the finish line for a 6:20 finish. PR'd by 10 minutes from my NF50K back in Dec.

With a total of 1 emergency bathroom stop and 10 hurls ir was one of the roughest experiences, but best days in my life. Kept thinking of my wife telling me to "keep smiling" and one of Geoff Roes posts about going through rough times on the course. Overcoming obstacles and learning how to deal with them paired with being in nature is why I love trail/ultra running.

The simplest way I can look at the race is that I had a bad day. Never before have I had stomach issues like I did at this race and maybe if I do again, I will know how to deal with it... PUKE!

Time for some rest and recovery, a little more training, then off to White River 50

Timberline Marathon

It's been a week now since I ran the Timberline Marathon around Timothy Lake last Saturday.

Starting my day from Eugene at 4:00am, I made my way up to Timothy Lake by 7 am. When the race started at 8:30 I was as calm as I'd ever been on a race morning. It was a staggered start, something I was not used to, but just rolled with. I was the 5th to start through and within the first few miles settled into a good pace and some of the quicker guys started after me and set me in 10th for the first half of the race.

I was alone for most of the first loop which is the way I like it. Once the second loop started it was 65 & sunny! I was on target for an 3:35 marathon, however at mile 20 my pace started to slow. Not sure if this is because my last run over 18 miles was a few months ago or just not enough water between mile 17 and 20. This being my second marathon ever (first trail, first was Eugene Marathon 4:40 in 2009), I was content with a huge PR.

Had one mishap with a root sticking out of the ground and picked myself up quickly and made it to the finish line in 3:56:09. 13th overall and 2nd in age group. Was stoked to have bettered my marathon time by almost 45 minutes!

Next up is SOB50k then Whiteriver 50M.