Vasque Pendulum – Initial Thoughts

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I had been waiting for these shoes for months since first hearing about them on iRunFar.com. The expected release date came and went and I still couldn’t find them anywhere. FINALLY, they showed up on a few internet retailers almost exactly the same time as my birthday so I asked for a pair and got them. Their price on Zappos is $109.99. Pretty decent/standard for trail runners. I have about 15 miles on them now and here are my initial thoughts:

The Vasque Mindbenders (review) have been my go-to shoe for the past couple of years. I absolutely love them. Their only real shortcoming is weight–they’re pretty damn heavy (but they do offer tank-like protection).

The first thing I did was put both shoes on the scale. My size 11.5 weighed in at 14.30 ounces for the (well-used) Mindbender and 12.15 for the new Pendulum. A difference of 2.15 ounces. That’s pretty significant especially when you’re talking about a 50K or 100 mile race.

Next I hit the trails and, much to my delight, the Pendulums felt almost exactly like the Mindbenders except lighter. That’s what I was hoping for. The most noticeable change is in the upper. The more minimal upper feels more free and I noticed that it feels less restrictive around the ankle (pic). It maintains the super wide toe box that I LOVE. In fact, it feel slightly wider than the Mindbender if that’s even possible. The tongue is extremely thin and short. I’m not totally sold on the tongue yet; there was one time when I needed to pull on the tongue as it had started slipping toward my toes and I couldn’t grab it because it was so short. But, that was one time and that issue will probably disappear once I get them broken in.

Those are my initial thoughts. I’ll post updates as I get some more mileage on them.

The hot shoe that seems to be competing with the Pendulum is the New Balance MT1210 (Leadville). They weigh almost exactly the same. I’d love to get my hands on a pair of them to compare side-by-side. We’ll see.

Platte River Half Marathon 2013

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I was having a drink with my cousin Ian when I asked him about a half marathon I knew he had coming up.

Ian: “I can’t run it. My knee’s jacked. Brittani [his GF at the time] might not run it since I can’t do it with her.”

Me: “Psssh. I’ll do it.”

Ian: “It’s in two days.”

Me: “Ok”

That’s how I came to run the Platte River Half Marathon. I had no idea what to expect from my body. I can typically run a half marathon at any time unless I’ve just done a long run but I hadn’t run at all in the previous two weeks due to travelling in Europe. I figured I’d be fine since I was going to run with Brittani the entire time and her goal was to just finish in the 3 hour time limit. Not a problem.

The race itself was actually pretty uneventful. The weather was absolutely perfect–right around 60 degrees the entire time. I had no issues endurance-wise and, surprisingly, my legs didn’t hurt at all. My ankles hurt a little when we’d walk through the aid stations but not when running. However, my legs were pretty wrecked for two days following the race. I attribute this to the race being on pavement the entire time. It’s amazing how much more damage concrete does to your legs compared to the trails.

Brittani did amazingly well considering this was the first time she’d run farther than 8 miles. We took it slow and walked through the aid stations. We finished in 2:37. Overall a great running day.

Cameron Cone Hike

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After 1 ‘failed’ attempt to summit Cameron Cone (I ran out of time), I decided to give it another go. This time with my brother Todd.

We hit the trail around 8:30 am and the temperature quickly started rising as the sun began to hit Englemann Canyon?

Shortly after the gully crossing we got off trail and, after bush whacking for a while, found ourselves at the bottom of a huge slab of granite. Hiking around either side looked to be impossible and we weren’t eager to backtrack. Luckily there was a decent crack up the middle so we decided to do some scrambling. Probably somewhere between class 3 and class 4 (a fall wouldn’t have been fatal but it definitely wouldn’t have been any fun – I wouldn’t have done it if I was alone). After successfully navigating the crack, we quickly rejoined the trail.

We made our way to Magog Ridge where the wind was completely ridiculous. We tried to get out of it to rest a bit but that was impossible. Instead we continued on to GOG Rock. The wind here was equally strong but we took shelter behind a rock and fueled up. This is where I turned back on my last attempt as it got too late in the day to continue (especially by myself).

We found the road towards the south east corner of the Gog area and followed that until we reached what we assumed was the ‘trailhead’. That assumption turned out to be correct as we began seeing ribbons on tree branches marking the trail every 20 yards or so (though they weren’t at all easy to spot).

The snow on the ground got much deeper here than I was expecting. We were post holing in 2-3 foot deep drifts at times. Neither of us had gaiters and Todd was wearing jeans and Vans (with ankle socks). Todd struggled pretty well to make progress up the side of the mountain as the trail got steeper but he kept at it.

While we were on the southwest ridge of Cameron, just below the top, some clouds moved in and snow dumped on us for about 20 minutes.

The snow passed just as we reached the summit and we hung out on the top for about 30 minutes. Todd’s feet were freezing (and his shoes were soaked) so he spent some time warming them up and I gave him an extra pair of wool socks I had in my pack (yup, I’m prepared). I walked around and took a time lapse and some pics.

We followed our tracks down for a while before losing them somewhere. We looked at both of our GPSs to try to get a bearing on where the trail might be but Todd’s wasn’t working right (he just got it and hasn’t quite figured it out yet) and mine was indicating that North was the direction that I was 100% sure was South. We put the GPSs away and hiked up to the nearest ridge to try to navigate by terrain. I had no idea where the trail was but I knew which way we needed to head (towards Gog Rock) so we decided to bushwhack in that direction. This involved hiking down a pretty steep slope that was covered in 3 feet of snow but we made it down pretty easily (and Todd was good with the fresh socks).

Once we reached the bottom I checked my GPS and it was acting appropriately again. We followed its advice and rejoined the trail after a few more minutes of bush whacking.

The remainder of the hike down was pretty uneventful as we followed our tracks most of the way and sight-navigating to Gog and Magog is relatively easy.

We were about 1/2 mile from the bottom when I remembered that my Yak Traks were in my pack and would have made Todd’s climb much easier. Whoops.

Overall it was a great day. Even the crazy wind on Magog and Gog and the intense snow storm weren’t bad enough to ruin the outing and just added to the adventure.

: This is what happens when you wear jeans and Vans. (but he did make it)

: Todd near Magog

: Todd scrambling near Magog

: At the top

: Todd doing some scrambling.

Book Review – Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek

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If you follow ultra running then you are aware of Scott Jurek (if you’re not then you should do some research). In addition to winning Western States seven consecutive times he also won Badwater twice, the Hardrick 100 once, and on and on….He’s one of the most accomplished ultra runners of all time (if not the most).

Prior to reading his latest book ‘Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness’, I didn’t know much about him other than his racing accomplishments and the few stories I’d read online (and he’s featured in Christopher McDougall’s ‘Born To Run’). I didn’t know what to expect with this book and I was pleasantly surprised. it features a prefect mix of back story (we hear about his upbringing and how he lived with his mother having MS), racing history (he tells about how he started running to stay in shape for skiing), race reports (want to know all about his first Western States win? It’s in there), food advice (amazing thoughts and recipes), and running philosophy.

I read the kindle edition and I found myself constantly highlighting insightful quotes, great running books that he mentions, good recipes, and ultra runners that I had never heard of before (that I went and looked up to educate myself more on the sport).

If you like running of any kind. This book is a must read!

Gog Rock Hike

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I’ve been wanting to get up to Cameron Cone for a while now. After reading many trip reports (here, here, here), I knew for sure that the trail would be somewhat difficult to find (even though I was armed with the GPS coordinates of the landmarks along the way — see the above mentioned trip reports for those).

I decided to head up after class on Friday and see how far I could make it. I’d hit the trailhead around noon and I figured I might be able to summit and quickly run down before total nightfall. I was definitely wrong.

I did get on the trail around noon (left the car at 12:10pm). I easily found the point to cross the Cog tracks marked by the ‘no trespassing’ sign. Though I later learned that crossing the tracks about 20 yards farther east enables you to join the trail directly rather than scrambling up the slope to find it.

The trail I started on (though not the correct trail as I would later discover).

I followed the trail, covered in completely undisturbed snow, for a while before losing it completely and finding myself in a boulder field. After scrambling around for about 10 minutes I figured I had to be headed in the wrong direction so I backtracked to the trail. Somehow, while backtracking, I discovered the real trail (no idea what trail I was on before). The right trail was covered in footprints which were a welcome sight. Just after the gully crossing (on car-size granite boulders) the trail felt like it went straight up. I found myself stopping to rest every 60 seconds or so.

Once it leveled off, I found myself on Magog Ridge (1:10pm). I explored the ridge for a bit taking pictures and trying to find any sign of a trail. Finding nothing, I decided to make my own tracks (the entire area was covered in six inches of snow). I headed toward Gog Rock knowing that was the next destination along the route.

Near Magog Ridge

I hadn’t seen another sole on the trail at this point and didn’t see another person all day. Normally I don’t mind some solitude in the mountains but I was a tiny bit nervous considering I hadn’t been in this specific area before and there was no clearly marked trail. While I don’t prefer heavily trafficked trails, they do provide a certain level of security knowing that, if disaster strikes, you’ll at least be found quickly.

I reached the base of Gog Rock (2:04pm) after wandering around and backtracking a few times thinking I wasn’t heading in the right direction. I couldn’t find any trail around the rock though it appeared that circumventing the west side would be impossible. I found some coyote tracks heading in the south west direction and decided to follow them. They eventually lead me to the south side of Gog Rock and the relatively open flat area with a clear view of Cameron Cone.

Gog Rock

I knew that I was only halfway through the entire summit route at this point and the wind had started picking up (storms were scheduled that night). As frustrating as it was, I knew it wasn’t wise to push on towards the summit given the time of day. Instead I explored the Gog Rock area for a while, ate some food, and took some pics before heading back the way I came.

I’ll have to summit the Cone when I have more time.