Quest for King's Marathon 2013

Three Trail Monkeys, running on a trail.

One somewhat slow.  One very fast. One fairly sick. (left to right).

And on this day, all three had success in one way or another.

Signing in at the beginning of the trail,
about the only time all three of us were together.

The Quest for King's Marathon is our annual trail run to the top of Utah's highest point, and it is our favorite run of the year.  Or at least the run we look forward to the most.  This year was no different, and the 13 miles from Henry's Fork to King's Peak and back are now familiar to us, although being familiar with the trail is the blessing and bane of this route.  It is good to know the route, to know where you are going, to be well aware of what challenges are there on the trail.  It is also daunting to know how difficult it is to breath at this altitude, how tedious the boulder fields are between Gunsight Pass and Anderson Basin, and how easily the death march of the last 6 miles can trip you up.

Before getting into any particulars, it must first be said that Steve killed it.  He started strong, he held his strong pace and he finished strong, improving on his best time from a year ago by 48 minutes.  He ran like a monkey possessed.  And for that, we salute you.

Blurred Sam.

There is one stretch of running on this trail that captures everything fun about trail running.  It's about 6 miles in, you've just completed the boulder trail and have passed Elkhorn Crossing.  It's about a four mile stretch in a clearing, you can see the top of King's peak, the sun is rising and the trail is perfect.  You're note yet in total pain, you've hit your stride, and the elevation hasn't slowed you yet.  It really is a perfect moment.  We all separately commented on how great this section of the trail was, even though we all hit it at different times.

Best part of the run. Stepping towards Gunsight Pass.

During a long distance trail run, there are challenges you know you will encounter before beginning.  Running at high a high elevation, you know it will be difficult to breath in some stretches.  Running for long stretches by yourself in the wilderness is a mental hurdle at times, and a perfect respite at others.  The large boulders that litter the trail jump out and grab your toes, you know that a sprained ankle is there at any step.  These are the things that can plan for, hurdles that you are aware of before the run and hopefully control.

Steve Descends, just in time to say hi and bye to both Sam and I.

There are also things you cannot control, and you simply have to deal with them.  You sometimes have to deal with elevation sickness, stomach/G.I. issues, or simply hitting the proverbial wall.  And once you are 10+ miles up a mountain, there's no way to tap out, you have to fight through whatever those challenges may be.  Steve overcame everything that was in front of him, as his awesome finishing time obviously indicates.  Sam had some stomach challenges, and despite the nausea and feeling much less than his best, he finished with a very good time.  Jake didn't have enough time for proper training leading up to this race, but was happy to just finish.

So, another successful summit of King's peak, another great day on the mountain.  Thanks to the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers for hosting this officially unofficial race,

Sam hopping his way to the top.

From the Top.  Of Utah.

The OTM were here.

Leading the pack down the mountain.  My daughter saw this photo and
asked "what is he going to do with his hairdo?"

Sam and Steve had never had any type of energy drink before,
and we hid 3 cans of Red Bull in the river at Elkhorn Crossing.
So we got a caffeine induced boost to help us close out the last 6 miles.
No wings, but at least it was a push to the finish.

Sam didn't feel so well after the run, and pizza was the last thing he wanted.
This was just before he puked.  The boy scouts had occupied the Men's restroom.
So he made it to the women's restroom.  The entire restaurant heard him heave a few times,
and it scared everyone away.  We had the whole restaurant to ourselves after that.
You can try that trick if for some reason you need to empty a restaurant.  Four or five
loud dry heaves tend to scatter people that are trying to eat.

Steve's Trail stats, by far the fastest of the Monkeys and the only time worth posting.

Steve's Time  6:19:34
Sam's Time  6:54:28
Jake's Time  7:27:00

Spartan Beasts! By Andrew and Jake

Andrew brought his game face.

I was lucky enough to do the Utah Spartan Beast for the second year in a row, but this time I brought along a different running buddy to tear up the course with me.  My son Andrew entered the Spartan kids race, and so we've given him the highest honor we know....we've dubbed him a full fledged Orange Trail Monkey.  Or at least I have.  I'll have to check with the other OTMs to get this cleared.  Here's his report on the Spartan race, which is infinitely more interesting than what I would report on, which mainly would consist of how hot it was, how crowded the trail was, and the backlogged nightmare walk that made up about 3 miles of the course in which you couldn't run but had to trek along with the herd in a single-filed-traffic-jammed trail.  So I'm mailing in the Spartan Race Report and instead letting Andrew tell you all about a truly awesome race day:

After the race and the showers

When we were driving up to the Spartan Race I felt excited and nervous because it was my first Spartan race.  The Spartan Race is a 12 mile long military obstacle race it’s very, very muddy. The Junior Spartan is a one mile race with smaller obstacles (that are not as dangerous) for kids under 12 years old.  I was excited for this race because I knew it would be hard and I knew it would be fun, and I didn’t know any other kids who had done it before.  When the race was about to begin, I was so happy and scared, my heart was pounding out of my chest.  I was all by myself because my dad was running in the adult Spartan Race.  But I knew I could do it.  And I knew it was going to be awesome and dirty.

  

Before the shower

After the shower

Once you start running, the first obstacle you run into was wooden towers that you had to climb over.  Next were some skinny planks that were elevated off the ground, and you had to walk across them without falling off.  If you fell off you had to redo it.  After that you had to army crawl underneath wires, but the ground wasn’t just dirt, it was SOOOO muddy.  My white shirt turned brown.  My white socks and underwear were turned brown too.  Then there these huge mud hills you had to climb, slide down the other side of the mounds into waist deep mud puddles.  I even jumped down one of these and splashed into the mud puddle.  Now you were not just muddy, you were soaking in mud.  Then there was a long run up a hill, and down a hill, with some more mounds of dirt, and wooden board towers to climb over, and then you ran past the start and got to do the whole thing again.  It was so cool.

After the race you had to shower with frozen water, which really wasn't a shower but just garden hoses that you sprayed your body with.  Even though we tried to get clean there was still mud everywhere, even after we got home.

The hardest obstacle on the kids’ course was running up hill in the super summer heat.  Like my friend McKinley says, “Oh my gosh freakin heck!”  (She’s only 2!)  My favorite part of the kids’ obstacle course was getting SUPER muddy.  I loved running in this race because it was a great experience, it was challenging, fun, oh my gosh freakin heck awesome, and I want to do it again next year and maybe even some day do the full Spartan Race with my Dad.

Tired, cut, muddy, and bruised but not broken!  WE ARE SPARTANS!  AROOO!

Race Review - Fountainhead Off-Road Half Marathon June 2013

One thing I love about traveling is that it allows me the opportunity to run in places I otherwise would never have visited.  I look for events in places I will be traveling on the off chance that I may get to run a race in a new (new to me, anyway) land.  This last week I was in Virginia for a tradeshow, and it just so happened that the Fountainhead Off-Road Half Marathon was being held, and I likes me a good trail run.  So sign me up!

I was nursing a foot injury...a leftover gift from the Salt Lake City Marathon that I ran in about 6 weeks ago,  a distance I was far from prepared to run.  I have some recurring tarsal tunnel syndrome from this race (which is like carpal tunnel, only in your ankles/feet) and so my runs have been limited and painful.  I know that to properly heal this thing I need to rest, go about 6-8 weeks without running at all, but right now it is too nice outside to stop running...it's prime running season!  The other Trail Monkeys are running quite a bit and making me feel like a sled, so it may be hard to get any real rest in.  So until I am practically unable to run I plan on getting out and feeling good for the first three or four miles, then feeling horrible about my pace and upset that my body isn't keeping up.  Plus, I've already registered for a few upcoming trail runs, so I'll keep giving it a go to see how my tarsal tunnels hold up.  If I have to walk a bit, no one I know would see me walking or moseying along, right?  Not in Virginia, anyway.  My dirty little secret.

After an incredibly late dinner the night before the race (at the Dog Street Pub in Colonial Williamsburg.  The Salmon Burger is phenomenal, if you are ever there) I made it to bed about 1:30 AM, and had to wake up at 4:30 AM to drive 2 hours north to get to the race venue in time.  That's 4:30 AM Eastern time, which means on my internal clock the wakeup bell rang at 2:30 AM.  Awesome.

My Selfie at the starting line was photo-bombed by some high school kid.
This 16 year old in the hamburger and fries shirt took 4th in his age group (29 and under)

A few notes about the race:  The website describes this course as "Fountainhead Regional Park is situated along the banks of the Occoquan Reservoir in Western Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The 10K and half marathon race courses are beautiful and consist mostly of hiking trails (including the Bull Run Occoquan Trail), horse trails, and old dirt roads. Competitors will run over rocks and roots, through several streams, and up some hills." 

The Occoquan Trail.  Rocks, roots, streams, hills...and even
a chainsaw obstacle at one log jump.

The trail was soft, muddy, and nice, very different than the harder and drier trails that I'm used to seeing in the Wasatch Mountains.  There were only a few hundred runners, so you never felt crowded.  The photographers from Swim Bike Run take some of the best race photos I've ever seen (check out their work here).  It felt more like a big group of friends getting together to run rather than a stuffy and/or nerve racking race event (in other words, it was fun rather than competitive).  The trail was never flat, you were always either going up or down, but never level.

I learned a few things during this race as well:

Sleep the night before the night before race day is just as if not more important than sleep the night before the race.  Nerves or travel or kids sometimes keep you from getting much sleep on the night before a race, so make sure you get good sleep the night before the night before the race.

Humidity kills - I hydrate quite a bit before a race, but in this type of climate, coming from an arid desert, you should really overkill the hydration.  I felt like my sweat had sweat.  By mile 6 or 7 it looked like I had just gotten out of a pool.  The forest cover kept out the sun, but trapped the humidity under the canopy, and I was drenched. Humidity is more challenging for me than elevation. Pictures to prove it:

HUGE head shot.  sweaty.
Taken at one of the many old graveyards along the trail

Trail Runs are so much more fun/engaging/challenging than road runs.  I hadn't run a trail in a while, and this was just what my psyche needed, and my knees, and my foot.  It engages you differently than road running.  You can get into a groove and sort of check out while running on the roads, zone into a trance and not really think at all.  Trail running is a different kind of zen, in which you must be one with the trail, bouncing over rocks/logs/stumps/roots and changing every step to reflect your trail.  Pay attention or pay with a sprained ankle.

IT Band issues suck.  I was content to run mile after mile thinking that increased mileage increased my strength enough, but as I was compensating for my foot pain and ended up with my first ever IT Band issues.  I did some of the strength exercises from Strength Runner (Video link here, these exercises are GREAT when it comes to overcoming IT Band issues) and built up some strength that kept the IT Band pain from becoming a long term problem.  The IT band pain wouldn't have just gone away with more running, but I am certain the Tarsal Tunnel Pain will.  Or at least I hope it will.  No?  whatevs.

Running in new places where you don't know anyone just reminds you that we're all friends on the trails.

Can't wait for the next trail run, or the next road trip, or possibly both.  Hopefully there will also be a Salmon Burger in your future, wherever you are.

Race Review - SLC Marathon - Boston Strong

It was a very intense week, indeed.

After the tragic events that occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on 4/15/2013, the Salt Lake City Marathon was to be one of the first distance races that would be taking place in the U.S. since that horrific day.  Security at the race was a major concern.  The safety of the runners, the race volunteers and the spectators would be of paramount importance.  Would the additional security and heightened tensions surrounding the event have an effect on those in attendance?  The Trail Monkeys wouldn't really know how the race turned out, because none of the OTM were signed up for the SLC Marathon.

Until Tuesday.

On Tuesday, I got a call from my brother-in-law, who had been training all winter for the Salt Lake City Marathon to be his first marathon.  Unfortunately a bad case of shin splints were forcing him to withdraw from the race, and he wanted to know if I wanted to run in his place.  Sounds fun, right?  Does it really matter that my longest run this calendar year was 15 miles?  No way!  That's plenty of practice.  Should I be concerned that on Friday, the day before the race, my legs were still incredibly sore (Dead Quads are an Olympus gift) from the previous Saturday's Olympus climb?  Not at all!  Is it really a problem that I've sworn off marathon distances because of pain and injuries sustained from other distance runs?  Forget all that!  And so I decided to ignore everything practical about this event and run in my brother-in-law's place (ssshhhh, don't tell anyone.  I think taking the place of another runner is illegal).

Front of the Tech-shirts passed out by Altra.   Back: "Keep Running"

Everything about the race was a tribute to the Boston Marathon.  People wore Yellow and Blue (the official colors of the Boston Marathon).  There was a moment of silence at the beginning of the race to honor those effected by the bombing on Monday.  Altra passed out some great tech shirts to anyone who wanted to wear them.  People wore Red Sox and Bruins jerseys, Boston ball caps and Celtics apparel.  We sang "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond at the start of the race and at the finish line, which is a Fenway Park tradition, usually sung by Red Sox faithful during the 7th inning stretch.  (sidenote:  Sweet Caroline has no direct ties to Baseball, to Boston, or to the Red Sox, it's just a wacky baseball tradition.  I personally think the reason people sing this at Fenway Park has to do with a mid-90's movie called Beautiful Girls, in which they have a sing-a-long to Sweet Caroline in a bar much like they do at Fenway.  The movie takes place in Boston.  Check out the movie clip of this scene here.  You can never have too much Uma.)  And a handful of Utah Runners that ran the Boston Marathon the previous week ran the race in 4:09, timing their crossing of the finish line at the exact time that the bombs went off in Boston the previous Monday.

The race itself was cold and wet, as it rained for the first 3 hours of the race (maybe it was a nod to Boston to have such cold weather).  This made for some painful chaffing.  Remind me not to wear my heart-rate-monitor on long and rainy runs.  The course was fairly flat, however, and I stuck to my race plan of being the tortoise, not the hare (start slow and steady, finish slow and steady).  My time was much better than I could have hoped for with so little preparation (3:52:40).  And it may have been a stitch long (my Garmin showed 26.4 miles, as did three others I checked with after the race.  If you don't think there's a big difference between 26.2 and 26.4 miles, you haven't run a marathon).

My Boston "Run Now" Bracelets.  These babies made it all 26.2 miles.

But the most memorable part of this race was the positivity of everyone along the race course.  There is a camaraderie among runners that is tangible, especially on race day, and you do end up encouraging one another during the race or even in passing someone on the street or trails.  But this was like no other race experience I have had.  People cheered when you passed their houses, even cars stuck in race day traffic had their windows down with a smile and a cheer.  I was surprised at the psychological effect this had on me personally, as each time I smiled back to some stranger in their car or along the side of the road I did have a burst of energy, and extra push.  You didn't want to let anyone down.  The power of community is contagious and sweeping, and it sure helps to have that support when you start to falter, or slow down, or have a low point.

This week, despite the challenges of weather, lack of preparation, fatigue, and whatever else came along, the support from those around us on the course helped us run stronger.  Boston Strong.

Wet, Sore, and Smiley.  

New Taipei City WanJinShi International Marathon - International Monkey Race Review

Is Everybody Ready?  Thumbs-Up at the Starting Line!

Las Vegas, NV.  Salt Lake City, UT.  Seattle, WA.  Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan.  WanLi, Taiwan.

What do these locations have in common?  Other than they are all in the Northern Hemisphere, the commonality I'm getting at is I've ran in each of these places in the last three weeks!  And it has been awesome!  I've been traveling a bit for work lately, and I make an effort to get out and run at least once everywhere I go.  Map-My-Run is having a heck of a time keeping up with the changing locales.

The first four locations on the list were just training and fun runs, but during my last run I was able to attend the New Taipei City WanJinShi International Marathon (hereafter NTCWJSIM).  The NTCWJSIM allows runners to choose from distances of Full Marathon (42K), Half Marathon (21K) and 10K.  I only did the half-marathon, as I'm not as fond of the strenuously long distances as are Sam and Steve.  I hear the longer distances can leave one injury prone.


Me and my running mates, possessed and ready to run.
left to right: Little Gao, Winston, Erica, Selma, and 席文凱

Our morning began at 3:30 AM, as we had to catch the race shuttle at 4:00 AM to take us from downtown Taipei to the NorthEast Coast.  Getting out of the big city is a good thing for aerobic activity, and good for breathing in general.  Soon we were at the racing plaza, checking in, trying to stay warm despite the cool ocean breeze, getting some snacks in prior to the run.

Here's the start.  And the Finish. 

I heard some wonderfully infectious beats coming from the race stage, and thought I had better go check out where this catchy music was coming from.  The entire race plaza was full of athletes getting ready for their run, with the Jane-Fondas on stage directing the crowd in aerobics and warm-ups and stretches!  What a great idea!  Why haven't they done this at any of the U.S. races I have attended?  Are we too cool for this great idea?  This is such an obviously wonderful program I hope it will be stolen and replicated at races across the West.  Alas, I probably hope in vain.

The gun sounded for the NTCWJSI-Full-Marathon at 6:30, but by that time just about all the Half-Marathoners had already crowded the starting line.  I made my way to my usual spot, looking around to find people who appeared to be a bit faster than me and hoped to fit into the sub 8 minute mile grouping.  Although your guess would be as good as mine when trying to find this segment of racers, because appearances can be deceiving.  It's usually that person that looks like they shouldn't be running at all that zips by me early, and similar folks passing me by at various parts of a race.


When 6:50 sounded the NTCWJSI-Half-Marathon began.  Like every other road race I've attended, it was a bit crowded for the first mile.  But the road was wide enough that it was never a real problem, even while we ran a mile in a man-made tunnel.  After the tunnel, the rest of the run was along the Pacific Ocean shoreline.  The largest major city in this area (Keelung) averages 214 rain days per year.  Keelung receives approximately 147 inches of rain per year, for a comparison Seattle averages 38 inches annually.  But on this day we were lucky enough to only have overcast skies and a slight cross-wind from the Ocean.  The cross-wind pressed you diagonally, but never really was it fully a headwind or fully a tailwind, just a minor interference breeze.  The only real climbs on the run were short, and you gained only 100 feet in less than a half a mile each time.  But the downside (literally) of not having more hills is that there are fewer hills to run down.  I guess it all evens out in the end.

One thing that always impresses me is how welcoming the Taiwanese people are to foreigners, and this race was no different.  At the halfway point, there was a turn-around, and at that point you began running against traffic on the other side of the street.  There were hundreds of runners who encouraged me with a thumbs up, cheering me on and being altogether supportive of me as I ran by.  I'm sure other Westerners on this run had the same experience, as the Taiwanese people are incredibly polite and will often go out of their way to try to make visitors feel welcome.  This race was no different, both the race support staff and the public on the side of the road.  I gave high fives to the little kids on the side of the road, had my photo taken with some protestors, and chatted up the folks at the drink stations.  Thank you for the love, all of my new found friends.

When I finished I was happy to have a new PR, besting my previous time by 2 minutes.  Some of that, actually most of that has to do with running at sea level, but I hope that my fitness has improved a bit as well.  We shall see after the next half marathon at altitude.  All in all it was a good time, the race was well organized and well staffed, the road clearly marked, my friends and I all enjoyed a fun, well-organized and scenic race and I feel lucky that I get to do these kinds of things while traveling for work.

At the Finish Line with My friend Mr. Wei.

Beard Campout 2013



We're Happy.  No really.  This is fun.  If I say it enough I may believe it.

Tradition.

I am a recent inductee into the Brotherhood of the OTM.  And there are traditions the OTM have adopted that appear to have no rhyme or reason...other than the fact they are traditions.  This is probably true of most traditions in your life, really, just doing things a certain way because that's how things have always been done and that's what your family does during those times of the year.  Some of the glorious traditions you may have read about on this blog include ridiculously goofy hats, Barrel-monkeys hanging on shoe-laces or mountain tops, shorts on the snow trails, and popping magic drink caps in grocery parking lots (which is not nearly as dubious as it sounds).  But it appears that the most time-honored tradition of the OTM (other than regaling one another with our trail-side bathroom adventures) would be the Beard Campout.



Pretty Ice Crystals.  Don't let the beauty fool you.



It's a tradition to grow a beard before the winter campout, although this tradition may just be an excuse for the OTM to be lazy and to get out of shaving for a few weeks.  Allegedly the beard will keep you warm on the trail.  Allegedly, a warm beard-face is necessary when hiking at higher elevations, although it turns out it is actually much colder in the lower elvations of the inverted and  cold-locked valley.  There is a traditional bacon/egg/cheese/muffin breakfast, traditionally missing some vital component (not this year). Allegedly winter hiking/snowshoeing is awesome.

Bearded Huff, looking like a feminine hygeine product.

And so, tradition mandates that there must be beards, and there must be blisters, and there must be misery.  Snowshoeing with a backpack uphill is miserable.  But convincing yourself you had a great time afterward?  That's the real tradition.

Jesse, in full boy-band earnest lip-sync pose.

Someone much smarter than I described this phenomenon as follows:

"Half the fun of camping in those days was looking forward to getting back home. When you did get back home you prolonged the enjoyment of your trip by telling all your friends how miserable you had been. The more you talked about the miseries of life in the woods, the more you wanted to get back out there and start suffering again. Camping was a fine and pleasant misery."

From Patrick F. McManus' A Fine and Pleasant Misery

The quote from Mr. McManus' book is 30+ years old, and it still as true now as it was back then.  But now, instead of just telling your friends how miserable things were, you also get to blog about it and record your misery not just for now, but for maybe next year, when the traditional beard campout comes around, you can look at the blog and remind yourself just how miserable things were.

So.  Beard Campout.  You were miserable.  See you again next year.



Beard?  Goofy Hat?  Backpack?  Inversion?  Must be a tradition.

Bobcat tracks in our snowshoe tracks.



Inversion makes for challenged breathing
when you're in it, nice sunsets when
you're above it.

Jake's backside on a backside climb.












Chili Can top.  Sam says you don't need to pop the top of your can
when you put it in the fire to heat it, but we found this chili can lid
by our tents 20 yards from the fire after it exploded in the fire.
Yes we know what we're doing.

North Willow Lake Map and statistics

New Year's Freeze

Psychomachia.


It's a classic cartoon device: there are two distinct voices inside a conflicted character's head, pitching the good and the bad about whatever decision that person is facing.  Rarely does the hero choose to follow the Angel.  Donald Duck is tempted by his Devil into smoking a pipe, then he coughs and wheezes and struggles for breath.  In the Emperor's New Groove, the Devil on Kronk's shoulder does all sorts of tricks to show how much cooler he is than his shoulder Angel. Homer Simpson even sells his soul to the Devil for a doughnut.

Medium, or Super Sized fries and drink?

And so I found myself in such a dilemma on New Year's Day, caught between my own little Angel and Devil, trying to decide if I should go running or not.  I've actually lost out on some good runs/climbs with the OTMs after being convinced by my shoulder devil that I didn't need to go running in December.  The devil starts to say things like "It's too cold to go running" or "You're too busy with the holiday season for a long run" or "you're phlegm spewing cough and hallucination-induced fever flu is too debilitating to even let you leave your bed, let alone run to the top of some 10,000 foot high Wasatch peak in December".

On New Year's Eve Sam kept asking me about running up Adam's Canyon the next morning as a way to ring in the new year.  I had every Devil excuse ready for him.

"It's the day after New Year's Eve."
"I don't want to wake up at 6:30 AM after staying up so late the night before."

"It's going to be too cold."  (8 degrees F at the base of the mountain)

"I don't have snowshoes."

"I don't have a beard like you do to keep the cold out." (maybe that one was a bit of a reach).

The Angel was persistent, or at least patient, and even after I woke up at 6:30 and texted the OTMs that it was too cold to leave my bed, (one last try by my shoulder devil), I ended up on the trail for the first run of the year.  I even brought my own goofy hat, as I believe this is an OTM requirement.

After trying my best to avoid getting out in the cold, in the early morning, on a holiday, I couldn't have been happier with the run.  After 5 minutes of climbing, the cold was not an issue.  I wasn't tired from waking up so early on a Holiday.  A nice, short ascent amid incredible scenery, getting a good sweat on, what a great way to start out the New Year.

So remember, when the devil on your shoulder tells you that it would be so much nicer to stay in your warm bed, when he tells you that you don't need to get out and go, when he throws any number of excuses in your way as to why you shouldn't run with the OTMs, remember that the Angel is always right.  You will always feel better after your run, you will always be happy you went and did something fun and challenging, and it's always better to be the person who was happy to have gone and done whatever it is you do than it is to be the person who is sorry they missed out.

Sam warming up with a 10-rep set of Fallen Tree Squats

Adams Canyon Waterfall, January 1, 2013

Quasi-Possessed Huff in the Wild.

No I'm not getting gray hairs...just frosty sweat.

"Take off, eh?  I'm taking you to the loony bin, then I am going to the brewery, you hoser."

  

And one final note on the mileage.  After the run up Adams Canyon I went sledding with the kiddos, and so I ran up a large sledding hill at least 20 times.  Which means for one moment in 2013 I had more mileage than Sam and Steve.  At least until January 2nd.  Then they ran right past me.  I guess you can only be the King of the Mountain for so long.