2014 Into 2015: Lessons Learned

2014 into 2015.

A year ends.  A new one begins.  A midway cancellation of a hard hundred.  A tired skyrace.  An injury.  An FKT.  An offseason. A new team.  New sponsors.  Cabin building.  Trailer livin.  European futures.

2014 is hard to put into words.  My first real year of racing.  I learned a lot about myself as a runner and enjoyed traveling around to all the races.  One of the biggest things I learned was the necessity to make hard decisions when it comes to competition.  Riding a motorcycle around the country and running mountain races, while an amazing way to spend a summer, is not ideal for competition.  Most of the races I felt tired, undertrained, and I felt I was constantly making a decision whether or not to train hard or to experience the many things that traveling offers.

The last leg of my trip was a bit of a rush back to Arizona.  I really wanted to get back a few days before the Mogollon Monster 100 in order to settle in back home and relax a few days off the bike.  The race itself was a blast.  The rain made for a fun muddy run around the Mogollon Rim and its not every day that you can run through the fog in Arizona.   

Running of the Mogollon Monster 100 2014.

Unfortunately the race got called off due to worsening conditions, and we had to simply stop and go home (or to the bar).  With the cancellation of Mogollon and my inability to partake in The Rut, I decided to run The Flagstaff Sky Race the next weekend just more or less to partake in the event, the local community, and to get a finish.  By race morning, I was tired, run down, yet ready for a long day on the trail.  The course was amazing, one of the hardest finishes to any race I’ve seen, and legitimized Flagstaff within skyrunning.

The final push of the Flagstaff Skyrace.

The end of the skyrace marked the end of my racing year, and I turned my focus towards and FKT attempt I would be running with Chad Trumbo a few weeks later.  Chad and I had been discussing possible runs to do for awhile, and in the end opted against Hole-To-Hump, a 90 mile run from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the top of Humphreys, Arizona’s highest point.  Instead we decided to go for a completion of the Prescott Circle Trail, and 52 mile non-motorized foot trail circumnavigating Prescott, Az, both our hometown.  We dropped 3 caches of food and water, and with some route finding, we completed the trail in 7:45, a fastest known time. 

Prescott Circle Trail.

A few days before the run I was running at Granite Mountain and slammed my foot into a rock while running fast downhill.   A momentary lapse of attention admiring the scenery, and I came away with an injury that would nag me throughout the offseason, and still has had no improvement at the time of this writing, some 3 months later.

As offseason set in, I settled into working on my property.  Cabin building took over and I mentally prepared myself for the season to follow. 

For 2015 I’ll be running for The Run Steep Get High mountain running team this year sponsored by Salomon.  Im super excited to be teaming up with such amazing athletes and to be on a team that is so focused on the mountains.  I was also fortunate enough to get selected to partake in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France in late August.  This has more or less dictated my entire summer, and thanks to Abel from Ultra Life Team in Spain, I have been able to coordinate with a few other races in Europe this summer.  2015 is looking to be one of the most amazing years of my life, and I look forward to all that is to come.  Stay tuned for my 2015 schedule post coming soon!!