SHivering Icey Trail Run

The inaugural SHivering Icy Trail Run was so memorable that all of us at ROCK Racing have been asked dozens of times over the summer if we would be organizing the SHITR II.  We told everyone that asked “Yes”!

Now it’s time to make good on those promises.  The SHITR II will go off on January 11, 2014 at 5pm, starting from The Mound.

Once again we will run our favorite trail - Lost Valley in Weldon Spring, MO.  Great single track, great parking, hills, fast-flowy sections, techy sections, and open after dark.  It is the perfect place for what we have planned.  And this year a section of the gravel double track has been replaced by more of the rocky singletrack we all love.

Come join us for a 13.1m trail run on some of the best singletrack in the area.

 

What could make a trail ½ marathon fun you ask?

Let’s do it in the dark.

In January.

 

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Reserve the date on your calendar now 1/11/14.  5pm start time.

(Actually read these race reports from last year, if you still want to run then put it on your calendar!)

Truthfully though it was awesome, awesome in a way that only the people sitting around those tables at the Mexican restaurant could understand.  We had all endured something together and even though I didn’t actually talk to every single person who was there I still feel a bond with everyone of them, and that is something you can’t get from a road race.
If you missed out on the race this year then you should totally feel jealous, and if you see someone trying to merge in traffic with a SHITR decal in their window you should give them room and allow them to move because they are badass and deserve your respect.  Next year the SHITR will be even better!  Don’t miss it. - (Patrick Albert, Adventurer)

http://mlkillian.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/shivering-icy-trail-run-the-shttiest-trail-half-marathon-non-race-ive-ever-done/
http://kate-my-mind.blogspot.com/2013/01/shitr-happens.html

http://adventuresofdog.com/2013/01/15/latex-gloves-and-a-sticker/

http://silkychrome.blogspot.com/2013/01/race-report-gear-review-shitr-salomon.html

http://patrick-trailanderror.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-shitr-promised-challenge-and.html
http://apabstsmear.blogspot.com/2013/01/bat-shitr-crazy.html?zx=e1a0865960ab5440

http://100plusproject.com/2013/01/15/the-shitr-promised-a-challenge-and-delivered/

http://www.rock-racing.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html

And once again…This picture might or might not be a clue to the mystery event....if there is one.

(More details coming soon on the Facebook event page – like the sticker logo contest) 

tracks n treads 2013

Well I can’t say EVERYTHING went perfect, but I can say that it was an excellent race even with a few glitches.

So let me see if I can tell you the story of tracks n treads in less than 100 pages.  Oh, quit moaning, I will keep it short.

As you know the weather this year has been more than crazy, we don’t know from day to day if it’s going to rain, sleet, snow, or be hot enough to jump in the pool.  So as we were just 3 weeks out from the race, and we ended up with 12 inches of snow, I was more than a little worried about anyone showing up to race. Just a week before race day, we only had about 50 entrants, but then the weather got nice and by the closing of online registration, just two days before the race, we had 105 entries. After race day registration, we had 159 entrants.  I guess I need to thank mother nature for that.  The weather was perfect, in the low 60’s at start time and the trails both run and bike were in perfect condition.

In the past we have always gotten a lot more trail runners than biathlon, but this year was different, which makes me believe that the word is getting out to the mountain biking community that this is a great race.  So here are the stats for the race.

Biathlon - 82 Male, 19 Female, 12 Team Male, 12 Team Co-ed                    

Trail Run - 10 Male, 12 Female

There are even more stats, which I love, but most people don’t so I won’t bore you with them.  Thanks to Randy from Metro Milers for leading the timing team and getting me the stats.

Now that you have the stats let me tell you a little about the day.  We had great volunteers that helped mark the course and setup the transition and finish line. 

Finish Line

Wade did a great job making the finish line interesting with a hill and a cyclocross barrier to cross, and with red bike sculptures along the finish chute. I bet there is no other race that you can get an art exhibit with your race at no extra charge.  

Bicycle Sculptures

The barrier gave spectators plenty of entertainment, watching the variety of ways people crossed the barrier.  This guy in particular was very cool.

Cool Dude jumping the barrier

All the pre-race setup was finished on Friday and on Saturday we just had to pull the race off.  We started the day with late coming information about a 5K race starting and running on some of the same course as our bikers and the race start time was about the same time as our bikers would be coming through.  Lucky for us Mike was able to reach the race director and workout a safety plan just before the race. We also found out about a canoe race so there were spectators all over the course.  We adapted to the change and no one was hurt.

Racers showed up and got registered, picking up a very cool custom printed Camelbak water bottle and KIND bars. 

Participants Schwag

The volunteers worked overtime getting everyone checked in. There were a couple bib number mix ups due to changes from trail run to biathlon, but other than that, everything went extremely smooth.  Soon we had everyone in place and after some pre-race comments, we were ready to go. Oh wait, I have one story to tell at this point.

My daughter China and her friend Jordyn had one important job to do, it was to stand at the top of Whiteside hill with the police and make sure that no cars came through as the runners crossed the road.  So Jeff, the Run Course Lead took them to their post and tells them what to do. Well as they stand there, they have a great idea to run to the car and get a blanket because it was kind of windy and they were cold.  Being teenagers, they didn’t think to check the time, so they headed back to the car and Jorydn starts to cross the street out of the cross walk, China tells her not to J walk because you can get a ticket. They get to the overpass and see the runners take off, so they turn and start running as fast as they can to get back to their post, Jordyn is running for the cross walk and China yells “just J walk” so they cross the street and are only yards in front of the first runner, they barely make it to their post as the runners pass by. 

The Race has started

They are so out of breath that they had no idea if there were cars coming or not, it’s just a good thing the police were there.  They did go back and hand out water though, at least they were good at that.

The volunteers that almost missed the race

So as you can see, the race took off at a fast pace with Travis Redden and Garrett Fulkerson running neck and neck most of the run. 

Travis followed by Garrett

Travis finished the run first and went through the finish chute, but then we noticed he was on a team, so he just ran about 200 meters out of his way and had to run over and tag his teammate.  Russ quickly ran down to the tunnel to direct the runners to make sure that didn’t happen a second time.  Garrett Fulkerson came in winning the trail run, with Renee Wilcox winning the female division of the trail run. Garrett ran a time of 27:07, while Renee finished in a smoking fast 30:52.  These were both super fast times for the difficulty of the course.

More and more people headed out on bikes while trail runners finished the race, there was an incredible race going between the 1^st and 2^nd place overall all men, Anthony Dust and Matt Fulbright were racing it out for 1^st overall with Anthony taking first in a time of 1:05:24 with Matt coming in just over a minute behind him. Melisa Lemus took 1^st place for the women in a time of 1:10:22.

Anthony Dust

Another notable finish was our club president, Mike Wever.  He competed in tracks n treads for the first time and had a pretty good finish for an old guy, but he couldn’t beat Pat or Keith, which means they will never let him live it down.

Pat

Keith

Mike

Mike at the finish

Soon it was time for the awards and other then one competitor’s time getting lost, due to a missing bib tag, all went well.  Winners took home a really cool acrylic leaf.

Cool Awards

We had several people taking photos and they can be found on the Team Godzilla website, along with the full results. 

I want to take time to thank everyone involved with this race, the Cyclery and Fitness for coming out and helping with bike needs, Wild Tracks for loaning us their cyclocross barrier, Metro Milers for doing the race timing, SIUE for allowing us to hold this race on their beautiful campus and providing police protection, KIND for donating the very tasty and nutritious bars, that everyone loved, and of course GORC for building and maintaining great trails for us to ride and run on.

A special shout out goes to all those behind the scenes that do the work no one ever sees, thanks Jeff S, Mike W, Russ D, Mike H, Andrea M, Andrea W. And lets not forget the 40+ volunteers who were out there on race day.

2014 will be our 5^th year for this event and we hope to make it our biggest and most memorable yet.  I hope to see you next year.

I'm Back

Finally, after 11 weeks off, I'm back.  I may not be fast at anything, but at least I'm working out again.  During the last week of February I got the OK from both the orthopedist and the heart doctor to start working out again.  My orthopedist gave me free rein, but the heart doctor said I could start on with half workouts.

So of course I listened to him, you know how I always listen to what the doctors tell me.  Mark and I went out for an easy 10 miles on the GORC trails. 

Getting ready to test the old body out

I got to test out how the tailbone was going to do on the seat of my mountain bike and how the old ticker was going to take riding the awesome single track.

Just joking, no CPR was really needed



The ride went great, I felt pretty good considering how out of shape I was, but the old heart worked well and the tailbone didn't hurt much during the ride.

 

 

Made it back, alive and well

The next day I went out for a run in the woods with my friend Jenny, we covered about 4 miles at a horribly slow pace, but I was just happy to be out there.

 

Going out for my first run

So now I have been working out for 4 weeks, my bike rides are getting longer, about 3 hours now and my runs are too, but I haven't run over 7 miles at in one run yet, I'm hoping to be up to 10 mile runs by the end of April.  Hopefully with time, will come speed.  I guess I will just keep working at it and soon the speed will come back.

 

 

And as a gift to myself for being really good and taking the full 11 weeks off, like the doctor instructed, I bought myself an CX/Adventure bike. I just got it Friday night and rode it Saturday, but then the stupid snow came on Sunday and I haven't been on it again.

 

Me and my new Cannondale SuperX

Even though I didn't get to ride on Sunday, I did find something fun to do in the snow.

 

Out in the the snow with the kids and Ella Pitsgerald

 

 

I hope by summer to be back and track and be able to race in USARA Nationals with Chuck.

tracks n treads 2012

Most people have a party for their birthday, but if you know me, you know that I don’t do what most people do. For my birthday, I threw the tracks n treads Off-Road biathlon and trail run. The race was held at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. This year, there was also a new and improved race course, more on that later.

It all started back in December when I started planning for the 3rd annual race, this could have been the very last race because when the Metro Tri Club started this race, it was decided that if the race didn’t turn a profit in 3 years, we would discontinue it. Well, I don’t have all the numbers in yet, but I’m sure we turned a profit. That being said, you can start getting ready for next year’s race. I can’t guarantee that it will fall on my birthday again, but I can plan to make it a party atmosphere similar to this years, with food, friends and on fantastic race.



While planning this year’s race, Keith T. who is the clubs trail rat, asked if we could change up the course and have the run in the Big Woods and the bike on the GORC trails. This change would get us off the cross country course and into the woods for the run and although I really liked his idea, I had my doubts that it would happen. The reason was, to make a change like this we would have to spread out across campus, the race would have to cross roads and secure a larger area of the campus. I was pretty sure we would never get it past the University, but I was willing to give it a shot. I spoke with Tim E. my contact at the university and he said he would check on the availability of the area. Our original idea was to hold from the visitor parking lot, but after some checking Tim said we couldn’t do it from there, but we could use the Engineering lot. After checking it out, that area was an even better place to hold it.

Things went pretty smoothly after that, I got the race listed on active, fleet feet, STL Biking and many other sites. Jeff S. designed all the posters and entry forms, and I had them printed and started distributing them. We knew we needed to advertise if we wanted to draw racers, plus we really wanted to get the word out that the run venue was now rugged single track, hoping to draw more trial runners. All in all, things came together pretty well, but the last few weeks were hectic. Mike Wever the president of the Metro Tri Club retired from his real in December and he was a great help with completing tasks that had to be done in the middle of the day, while I was working, but he also had way too much time to think and sometimes my head was spinning with all his new ideas. I have to say, one of his new ideas with some help from Chris N. was to build a portable finish line and oh my gosh, it turned out really great, they did a fantastic job on it.


On Thursday, Mike and I met with some volunteers out at the race site and set up the transition area. Keith and Russ, covered the run course and put up stakes for signs. On Friday I spoke with Scott W from GORC and we agreed that the GORC trials were in excellent condition and we could use them for the race. This is where I have to give a big THANKS to Scott and GORC for helping out, they not only made sure the trails were clear, but they showed up on race day to help out on the bike course. I can’t express how lucky we are to have this group around building and maintaining these trails for our use. Friday afternoon, Keith and some volunteers marked the run course, then Keith went with Mark S and I out to mark the bike course. When we finished marking the course, I just knew that it was done so well, that there would not be an incident of anyone being directionally challenged this year. This is where I start laughing hysterically as I write this, because it seems no matter what we do, every year something goes wrong.

So race day came, I actually forgot it was my birthday until I got to the race and someone said happy birthday to me. I thought to myself, what a great day to have a birthday race, the day was beautiful, the weather was dry and warm, and the trails were in fantastic condition. Ok, so like I said nothing ever goes perfect, just before race day we found out that due to construction we would have to move parking to a different lot, but I thought no problem, it was just the next lot over. We sent out an email update to all the racers telling them to park in lot F instead of Lot E and we also put up signs directing them to Lot F. Well we had some racers park in the wrong lot, but we made an announcement to please move to the other lot or risk a parking ticket, most people didn’t complain, but then there is always one in the crowd. I thought ok, so someone is complaining, don’t let this little issue ruin a great day, if this person gets a ticket it’s their own fault.

Soon it was time for pre-race comments, so Mike made an announcement that I would give instructions, but first, it was my birthday and the crowd sang Happy Birthday to me while my daughter China and her friend Madison picked me up. Well that really made my day, thanks everyone that was really great. I went over the course, and of course mentioned that there was really no way anyone could get lost because we had marked both the bike and run course so well. I heard a few laughs in the crowd, but I really believed what I had just said.

Everyone lined up to start and the race was off. I was expecting to see the first racer come in between 26 and 28 minutes, but to my surprise there were about 7 guys crossing the line into transition in about 24 minutes. I was starting to worry, when Chris one of the club members runs in and yells that some had pulled down the caution tape at the turn and the entire race went off course. My head just dropped, I thought how could this happen, who would do something like this and why. I started asking the runners that came through where they turned and what distance they had on their Garmins. I quickly found out that at least most everyone ran the same course, it was just a shortened course, most of the racers missed on small loop, which made the course 3.3 miles rather than 3.8 miles. There were a few people who ran the long course, but at least they were club members and were very forgiving because it really was something that was beyond my control even though as the race director, I take full responsibility for the mistake. I do however think everyone enjoyed the run course.


See all the run photos here

As I tried to sort out what went wrong, the race continued, runners were finishing as cyclist were racing out of transition to the bike course. The first place trail runner, Garrett Fulkerson, finished in 24:16 which is amazing since he is only 13. Becky Sikorski won the women’s race in 26:48.

With my head spinning about the run course problem, I forgot to call the bike sweeper and tell him the last cyclist had left transition, good thing for me, Mark, my sweeper knows me and figured I completely lost my mind, so he started sweeping after not seeing a cyclist in a while. Good thing too or all those bike course volunteers would still be out there today manning their posts.

The biathlon winner, Anthony Dust, who happens to be the 2011 winner also, came through the finish line like a bolt of lightning finishing in 1:01:40. Here is the real kicker, Anthony came off the run in 7th place, probably 3 minutes back and he won the race by almost 2 minutes, my gosh, he is one fast cyclist, I wish I had his speed. The Women’s winner was no slouch, Erin Fuselier finished first logging a 1:19:10.


See all the bike photos here

Just after the finish of each race, we held the awards ceremony and gave away some great glasses with the tracks n treads logo on one side and the place engraved on the other. Once again this year, a group of club members met at Chuck’s house after a training run and engraved the glasses for this event. Thanks, Chuck, Lori, Patrick and Kate for taking time out to do the engraving.

For all the first place finishers there was an even greater prize, they received a pair of Swiftwick socks. The Swiftwick Company was very generous to sponsor the race this year and give us socks for all age group winners. If you haven’t tried Swiftwick socks you should. I got a pair at a race last year and haven’t purchased any other brand since. I could go into all the reasons why, but all you have to do is wear a pair and you will be a convert. You can also read ROCK Racing’s review of the socks here. I encourage you to give them a try and you can purchase them locally at The Cyclery and Fitness center in Edwardsville.

I can truly say I learned many lessons once again this year, but as a whole it was great event and I think everyone had fun. The new course was fantastic and I need to Thank SIUE and Tim E. for making it possible hold this race on the SIUE campus. Thank you God for the great weather, to the Cyclery for your bike support, to Culligan Water for supplying the water, to Metro Milers for the race timing and the biggest Thanks goes to all the volunteers, without you, we have no race.

Volunteers

To the racers, I hope you had fun and I will see you again next year.

Click here for Biathlon results

Click her for Trail Run results

Robin Rongey - Race Director

A Day on The GORC Trails

7 am on a Saturday morning in January, 18 degrees, virtually no wind, Good friends and fast bikes.

And me, I wasn't riding, I was just videographing, when I'm told not to run or ride for 6 weeks, that's what I do, ok, well, that's what I will do on Monday, I had to get one more weekend in first. Hey, you can't just go cold turkey without giving your mind time to digest something like this and get all the tears out too.


Oh, and I ran into my nemisis, Terry, while I was out there, good thing I was loading my bike or I would have had to kick his butt.

Excellent Adventure

The weather was so nice, the mountain girl, that's me, couldn't stay away from the woods. So Russ and I rode out to Southern Illinois Unversity in Edwardsville, IL and hit the single track for a little fun. My Trek Top Fuel was almost floating over the trails. Oh and I decided to wear my helmet cam so I could share the adventure.

WARNING! You might get jealous while watching this.

tracks n treads 2011

When it rains it pours or at least that is how it seems to me. Let me tell you why. I have been running my butt off for months, well maybe not really running it off, I mean when I look over my shoulder, it is very much still there, but you know what I mean. Being a race director is much more than just the glory on race day. In my case it wasn’t really glory on race day, but more of a nightmare. It was one of those DOH! How did I let that happen mistakes, but I will get to that later.

For 5 months I have been securing the date, reserving the venue, hooking us up with the Midwest Fat Tire Series, getting the race info posted on websites, securing the insurance, putting up posters, distributing entry forms, soliciting volunteers, designing shirts and awards, well really Jeff did all the designing and Dave did all the shirt ordering, I just coordinated the designs and orders, I did however get the awards ordered after a slight setback, then enlisted, Lori, Chuck, and Patrick to help engrave them. I worked with Mike to get all the supplies ordered and the porta johns setup. We all know the porta johns are one of the most important parts of a race, so at least that went well. We had marshals for everything, the run course, bike course, water stop, post race food, course setup, registration and shirt distribution. We also had all the hard working volunteers to do the grunt work. The race was really coming together well.

On Thursday night before the race we thought everything might workout, we had not gotten any of the rain that had been predicted and we hoped that the rain the weatherman was talking about was not going to hit on Friday. The good thing was we had a backup plan, an alternative course, in case the trails were too muddy to ride on.

So Friday came and the weather gods were not treating us well, it rained all day, the trails were muddy and slick. I called Scott from GORC and told him it was his call, but we would wait until Saturday morning to make it, but we both knew what it was going to be. Unless we were hit by gale force winds overnight, we would not be using the single track route.

Race day came and Scott made the call, we would not be using the single track trails, and to make matters worse the backup course had a section that was also too muddy to ride, so we had to make a third change to the bike course. Fortunately Scott had already thought out a plan that could work for us. We set out about 90 minutes before the start of the race to mark the new bike course. Since Scott knew the first part of the course he took the GORC crew and marked it. I took Chuck and Patrick and headed out to mark the back half of the course. We marked the course through the single track section we call log alley, because it is covered in logs. Good thing for foresight, Mark took a saw down to log alley on Thursday night and cleaned up some of the worse sections and he did it with a hand saw. Thanks Mark that was going above and beyond.

After marking log alley, I sent Chuck and Patrick to finish the course marking while I headed back to the start. 15 minutes before the start of the race, Patrick called to tell me the course was marked and they were at the turns waiting for the competitors to come through.




Mike and I gave prerace instructions and covered the new bike course, telling the racers to follow the red flags and chalk arrows. We hoped we did a good job of marking the course with all the last minute changes. All the volunteers were in place and Mike would lead out the runners on the Gator.



All the racers were lined up and ready to go. We had a field of 117, even with the cold temperatures we still had 20 race day signups.



It might have been the really cool shirt we gave out that drew them in.



Or it could have been the cool posters and the talk from last years racers that had them excited about the race. It may have even been the rumors of really cool awards that brought out the crowds.



Rich from Metro Milers shot the gun and the race started in a flash.



The run was fast with the runners passing the water station twice during the race. Culligan supplied the water for the racers and we had some veteran water stop volunteers manning the station.



The runners started filtering through the transition and started the bike loop, those running the 5K, came through the finish chute. The first biker came out of the transition and Mike and I led them out on the Gator. By the time we were about a mile into the course more bikers had caught up and were riding so fast that the Gator couldn’t stay in front, so we just pulled to the side and watched them pass us.

Now this is where my race director’s nightmare started. The new bike course was fast, faster than anyone anticipated. I had planned on being at the last corner into the finish and had told the volunteer that worked that corner I would be down. Well I got tied up with the results for the 5K and didn’t make it down to the turn before the volunteer left. The first place racer came through and made the turn, but the second place racer went straight, missing the turn and going about a quarter mile before realizing the error and turning around. To make it worse the next 4 guys followed him. I got to the turn just about the time they were all coming back. The mistake took some of the 5 racers out of position to place, some it didn’t make a difference in age group placing, but did give them a slower finish time.

I learned a few hard lessons as a race director, first don’t assign myself jobs, I have too much going on to take on an important job like working a major turn on the bike course. Second don’t assume that red flags, chalk arrows and pre-race comments will be enough to keep the racers on the right course. This won’t happen again on my watch.

I regret the mistakes I made and just hope that all those affected by them will return to the race next year. I promise I will do a better job in the future.

So the race was won in a smoking fast time of 53:44 by Anthony Dust. I know Anthony and knew he was a really fast biker, what really surprised me was that he is a pretty darn good runner too.




We also had a team of two 10 year olds that finished. Rory Shaw and Jacob Slosar completed the race in 1:41:15. Jacob rode into the finish followed by his mom and dad cheering him on.



Overall I think it was a good race. Everyone I spoke with after the race, really enjoyed it even with the alternate bike course. I saw a couple really favorable posts on the St Louis Adventure Racing board and the GORC forum. When people post about a race, it usually means they loved it or hated it. I’m just glad, they loved it. I hope we made the Midwest Fat Tire series proud, this is our first year with them and I want to make sure our race lives up to their standards.

Next year will be bigger and better. Lets all pray that the weather gods will be with us and we can use the single track bike course. It is a really good course. And most of all thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors, there are too many to list, but everyone did a fantastic job, especially those of you that stayed and helped with the final cleanup. Thanks to the Cyclery for being there to help the racers with bike problems. I couldn’t have done it without all the volunteers and sponsors.

Winter Snow Run 2011

So it’s winter in the Midwest, that can mean many things, rain, snow, ice, cold, you never know what you will get from day to day. A week ago I was running one morning with only one shirt on and no jacket, thinking I was way over dressed. 3 days ago, I was running in a steady drizzle, but it was still above 40 degrees. Yesterday the story was much different.

On Wednesday night it started snowing about 9 pm and by 5 am Thursday morning we had over 10 inches of snow in Edwardsville. I like snow, but I like it about once a year, and I like it to stay only for a couple days. For some reason I don’t think this snow will be gone in a couple days. The weatherman said that it was the most snow our area has seen in over 10 years.

So, now that we have all this snow, what is a person to do, well if you are me and my friends, you go out and run in it.



You bring a dog and hope he clears a path for you, that’s what we did, Zilla the team mascot came along, but didn’t help much because he was checking out all the snow and none of it that was on the actual trail.



If the snow is really deep and you plan on doing a shorter loop than usual, what ever you do, don’t let Jim go first because he will just keep going and take you on the long loop anyway.



And Doug being the newest member of the group, just followed him, he didn’t know any better.



We were having a lot of fun sliding around in the snow and it was a tough workout, I am even a little sore from it today. It was a good time, even though I made everyone stop and get a picture. I couldn’t figure out the timer on the camera so it took a couple tries to get it to work. Oh well these guys are tough, they can get a little cold waiting for me to figure out the camera. Kate had decided to turn back a little early, so when we took the picture it was only, Jim, Doug, Patrick and me.



So we finished the run in the dark, and it took a lot longer to finish the course than it usually takes us. But we really had fun, and just being outside always makes me happy.

And the adventure van made it through the snow like a wiz, Pat’s adventure truck didn’t fare as well, he was having some problems and doing a lot of wheel spinning. Good thing is, while we waited for everyone to show up, he filled the back of the adventure truck with snow to help weight it down, plus it gave him a good place to sit.