out of the darkness and all the secrets still exist.

Wanna know what I love most about ultra marathons?

The people, the places and the time spent with remarkable people in those spectacular places.  And those people and places combine to make every race worth looking back on in celebration whether you ran a PR, didn't run as fast as you thought you would, got injured or just plain didn't finish.

I love trail running.  Period.

I relish running alone and also love sharing the trail with a couple of close friends, but participating in organized events ensures that you cross paths instead of just follow paths.  You revisit friendships, establish new ones and share worthwhile fellowship even with those folks you never officially meet.

What do I like the least about ultra marathons?

I greatly dislike the fact that the pressure we apply on ourselves or that we allow to have applied upon us by others leads us to dissect our performances, feel the need to answer for our "failures" and potentially lose sight of what brought us out in the first place.  So wrapped up in push-on-through sloganeering is long-distance running that accomplishing anything less leaves us disappointed, defeated and defensive.

For several days following my decision to NOT go back out for another 50 miles after completing the first of two loops at the Antelope Island Buffalo Run, I tried to determine why I let fatigue and cold drown out my resolve to keep going.  I pondered the factors that made elusive a finish line that seemed on paper to be one, relatively speaking, easily reached.

Thankfully, what I like best came back to me.

I'll start with the place before moving on to the people.

Admit it, you've never heard of Antelope Island.  Until very recently, I hadn't or, if I had, it was a random assemblage of letters, just words, not a fixed position that I could identify on a map.

But it does exist, a 28,000-acre land mass, roughly 15 miles long and 7 miles wide resting out in the Great Salt Lake just west of Layton, Utah.  If you fly into the Salt Lake airport, you will see the island beneath your wings but you'll need to drive 40+ miles north to reach the narrow causeway that leads from the mainland onto Antelope Island.

It is a strikingly barren land, nearly devoid of vegetation higher than a couple of feet off of the ground.  There are rocks aplenty and a couple of peaks that climb a few thousand feet from the 4,200 feet of elevation at the shoreline.  Those peaks are dwarfed, however, by the stunning views of the snow-capped Wasatch Front standing guard to the East.  I marveled at the isolated pockets of weather that alternately dumped snow, hid the tops of peaks entirely and then rolled back to again reveal the jagged teeth that gate the far slopes that draw skiers from all over the world.

Seemingly endless swaths of hardy grasses are inhabited by 500 head of introduced bison and their neighbors include big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope and mule deer.  Fat rabbits are chased by equally well-fed coyotes.  Eagles, falcons, meadowlarks, chukars, ducks and other shore birds abound.  With few places to hide, all of this magnificent fauna is readily on display.

The wildlife, in its understated way, seems to appreciate the beauty of Antelope Island and I certainly did too.  I have never taken as many photographs during a race as I did at this one.  I'd shuffle along, stunned for minutes on end by the sweeping views before remembering that I had a camera and could make vain attempts to capture some of what I was seeing.  After snapping a few pics, I'd remind myself that I was "racing" and would zip the camera into its waterproof pouch and tuck it back into a vest pocket only to want to pull it immediately out again upon topping the crest of a rise or rounding another bend.

The wind pummeled the island all day (and all night) long, constantly reaffirming that it along with its ally, water, had shaped the landscape at which I gaped.   Nothing had ever nor would ever stand in its way, certainly not my outclassed jacket, and I never questioned that it reigned superior on the island regardless of what bureaucratic body claimed ownership.

If I were handed a piece of paper and told to draw the singletrack trails of my daydreams (AND if I possessed any ability to draw), those on Antelope Island may well have been what I'd have produced. While not carved naturally by the wind, the trails looked as though they'd always been there, that the land couldn't exist without them.  It could, of course, but the illusion was convincing.  There were rocks, here and there, to be wary of, but mostly it was rolling, forgiving terrain that felt so good underfoot you wished it would go on forever.

On the east side of the island where the land flattened out and hugged the shoreline, the long lines of sight made it feel as though the trails would, in fact, go on forever.  Even there, though, where it was mentally and physically challenging to endlessly turn the legs over and keep the mind from believing that no progress was being made, the land was still beautiful.  The lake rose with the wind and small swells lapped the edges of the island.  Here the Wasatch loomed most closely and their many contours revealed countless canyons across the water, silently emitting invitations for backcountry exploration.  The skies were boundless.

All was lovely.

As were the people spending the day on the island with me.

My dear friend Kelly Agnew had remained in sight during the initial miles of the day but had settled into the dogged pursuit and eventual successful securing of another 100-mile buckle and an impressive 9th place finish despite being far from full health.  I saw and even heard little of him after those first few hours but felt his presence throughout and cherished the opportunity to venture out the next morning to see him into the finish.

Shortly after the race began, I'd overheard a fellow runner, Jeremy Suwinski, dare to credit a nearby buffalo as having a better beard than mine.  He, sadly, was right, so, after a half-hearted defense, I settled into conversation that lasted for a few miles.  Discussing work situations provided reminder again of how blessed I am to have stumbled, blindly, into my position at Backcountry Edge, a position that had played no small role in my even being on the Antelope Island course in the first place.

On a switchback a few miles later, I came upon a woman and, just ahead of her, an older gentleman.  That man turned out to be 81-year old Grant Holdaway, the woman his daughter.  Grant was attempting to become the oldest individual to ever complete a 100-mile race.  He'd "retired" five years earlier, having finished a 100 at 76, but boredom, I suppose, had called his number and lured him from the sidelines back out onto the trail.  He, like me, only made it around the island once but if you dare say he ONLY went 50 miles, you need to learn a thing or two about perspective.

Another "old man", 45-year old Karl Meltzer did go 100 miles and he did so quickly.  His 14:34 finish shaved an hour off of the course record he already held and earned him his 35th 100-mile win.  Thirty five 100-mile wins?  Yep.  In case you're wondering, that is more wins, far more wins, than anyone else has ever notched at that distance.  It was a treat to get to see him do work and the memory of him completing the race at 2:30 AM to the muted applause of the then 5 or so fully-conscious people in the start/finish tent while I drowsed in the corner of the room is foggy but revered.

All day long, my beautiful wife, Lindsay, and her partner in crime, Jo Agnew, seemed to appear whenever I most needed someone to lift my spirits.  Despite the unshakable fatigue, I really didn't hit any desperate low points but their appearances were always a boost.  Possessing as big a heart as any I've ever known, nurse Lindsay was, not surprisingly, thrust into work at the start/finish line aid station, especially after I'd formally dropped down to the 50-mile distance and taken off my shoes.  Despite not ever having attended a long-distance race and being without knowledge of the running vocabulary that most event participants assume everyone "speaks", Lindsay toiled throughout the night and was still caring for runners and their family members long after the sun came up on Saturday.  The sleepless hours of the night took their toll and Lindsay is sick as the proverbial dog at the moment but I sincerely doubt that she'd have approached her duties any differently if she'd have known how she'd end up.  Dynamo Jo juggled the job of crewing for Kelly with helping out at the aid station all night too.  Those two women were amazing and the fact that neither of them were originally slated to "man" that aid station makes me wonder what runners would've experienced there without them.  I'm glad no one found out.

I also got to spend some time catching up with Missy Berkel who I'd met at TransRockies last August and though she was having a tough day herself, slowed by a troublesome knee that was giving her fits in the cold, she soldiered on and scored a 50-mile finish for which she should hold her head up high.

The venerable Roch Horton masterfully ran the show at the Black Diamond-hosted Lower Frary aid station, serving up pierogies, hot chocolate and broth (bROCHth) that pulled me out of an initial bout of wicked chills and was almost alluring enough to coax me back out into the night for another visit.  Adam Cox, a Black Diamond employee volunteering at the aid station, even parted with a pair of tights to better equip me for the wind and cold that settled in after nightfall.  Even though I did finally succumb to the elements, I certainly wouldn't have made it 50 miles without all the help and encouragement I received at Lower Frary.

There were so many other great encounters and I'm sure I am forgetting many of them, but  I would be remiss if I failed to mention the dry humor and quiet everything-is-under-control demeanor of race director Jim Skaggs.  It was a treat to be able to meet him the day before the race and help unload provisions for a weekend of racing (there are also 50-mile, 50K and 25K versions of the race that kick off the day after the 100-mile race's Friday start).  His manner is the perfect balance of no-nonsense organization and empathetic runner himself.

The most amazing personal experience of the race came as I rounded the last turn to trudge up the short hill leading to the start/finish tent at which I already knew my night would end. Quintin Barney, a man I'd met earlier in the day and with whom I'd leapfrogged back and forth all day long, had just caught up with me again and had someone special waiting to escort him into the aid station.  His precious daughter, Kara, was beaming in the dark with a smile that I instantly recognized as the one her father had offered up to me repeatedly during the preceding hours, just as he did to every other person that he met along the way.  Having staggered in out of the night and more or less collapsed in one corner of the tent, I needed a moment or two to realize that Kara had come over to ask how I was doing and, turning my head to glance across the room, I saw Quintin looking my direction with genuine concern for my answer to Kara's question.  I was touched by the gesture and had no doubt of its sincerity.  The love the two of them had for each other was so apparent and my heart ached for my sleeping daughters back home in Pennsylvania. Oh, how I hope to have similar moments on the trail with Lily and Piper some day, but, most of all, I hope that we're as close with one another and comfortable with our love as Quintin and Kara obviously are whether our shared moments do or do not include trail running.

Trail runners are at their best, undoubtedly, while they're actually running trails.  Away from those trails, it's easy to digress to the holding up of trophies and baubles, telling tales of accomplishments, making proclamations of what we're running next, all of which starts to sound an awful lot like the posturing and positioning reminiscent of high school locker rooms, locker rooms populated by self-conscious boys sorely lacking the confidence they are trying desperately to convince you they possess.

Completing a course, I don't care how long and challenging it may be, is not coping with true tragedy.  Crossing the line is not salvaging a damaged but worth-fighting-for relationship.  Making the cutoff is by no means overcoming life-threatening illness.

And not continuing on to the end of the race is, frankly, just not as big a deal as we make it out to be.  Not in comparison to remembering the gift of a healthy body, the privilege of recreation, of movement and the pure joy of shared experience.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who shared those gifts, privileges and joy with me this past weekend.

I'm short a buckle, but it'll barely be missed among the memories.

O.R. they?

As I sit here typing, it's hard not to think about the fact that this time next week I'll be trying to get a good night of sleep ahead of taking the first step of the 6 days and 120 miles that is GORE-TEX TransRockies the following morning.

Am I excited?  Yep.

But concerned too.

The more my fitness has improved, the more aware I've become of my weaknesses and the fact that there's just no way to properly mimic running at altitude when there's no altitude to be had.  Not without money (and the contraptions that money can buy) that I do not possess (and couldn't justify on said contraptions if I did).

I spent the past several days in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market trade show and, while there, had a couple of different chances to test the legs, lung and heart at higher elevations and had first hand opportunity to confirm that while being fit is a good foundation it doesn't always overcome science.

A whole summer of diligent nurture turned on its head by nature.  Go figure.

But up on the Great Western Trail in the Wasatch Mountains, I got myself the taste I needed to know more tangibly what I'm up against and that can't be all bad.  The racing pulse that signals my arrival at 9,000+ feet doesn't need to be a total deal breaker, but I've gotta handle it.  Feeling that pounding again firsthand before the actual first day of "racing" was definitely worthwhile.

It was also a blessing to be able to witness far more talented and experienced runners do what they do, either by bystanding or by running right alongside (or just behind) them.  I picked every accessible brain and tucked away what I could from offered advice and/or accounts of races and adventures.  I watched the way incredibly skilled trail technicians chose their steps and transitioned paces depending on the terrain.  I listened to them describe highs and lows and found that in many cases the moments they seemed to cherish weren't necessarily finish lines or medal ceremonies, but more often the same minor triumphs or beautiful landscapes that us less accomplished plodders  hold dear.

I'd been reminded, as I often am in the presence of trail runners that the majority of us are in search of the same camaraderie, friendship and shared passions.

I wasn't going to be able to thieve any of that talent or call upon experience that belonged to others, but maybe just maybe I stored away some new perspectives and nuggets of insight that I can draw from during those pending 6 days up high in Colorado.

We can't all stand atop podiums or set records, but we can each take another step along the trail, up the next climb or down the next descent.

Not being entirely sure what lies around the bend isn't a good enough reason to not go see.

I'm gonna have a look.

4,226 feet high and rising.

I last boarded an airplane back in August and, despite the economic gloom the news would have me believe, the parking lot outside the airport was packed, the hallways were flooded with bodies hurrying from gate to gate and there was not a single unoccupied seat on board.  Looked just like it did in the salad days of the late 90's and early millennium by my eyes.

But Cincinnati in early 2012 had room, room, lots of room to spare.  My mind conjured up the foretelling of the rapture but I couldn't recall if Cincy fell in the ol' Bible belt or not and my instincts told me no.

Nope, not a single soul had ascended to heaven but some of the hell had been taken out of flying.  The flight in from Philadelphia found me enjoying a row of seats all to my lonesome and I'd landed in Ohio without any need to unfold myself from a cramped position.  The doors flung open and there waiting in the airport was...nobody.  Glorious.

There was another spare seat waiting on the connection from Cincinnati to Salt Lake City and clear, obstacle-free skies delivered me blissfully to the Wasatch Front.  Back again and ready to run.

Yes, there was work (much work) to be done and as much as I'd like to "cool guy" you into believing I don't give a crap about work, I'd be bluffing and you'd be right to call me on it.  I toil away like my Germanic father before me, wearing a work ethic like its the only pair of pants I own.

But I do leave room for my vice and, in a world of R-rated vices, mine is downright Disney with a capital G.

The clock strikes 4:30 AM Mountain Time and I am out the door.  Fifteen minutes later, I'm a thousand feet above downtown and Salt Lake City sleeps below like the slumbering lion of The Tokens' song.

I only covered about 5 miles but the thin, crisp (and impossibly clean in comparison to home) air and the meandering singletrack put me in the right headspace for a day of business-ing in the climate-controlled environs of the Salt Palace and the Winter Outdoor Retailer trade show.

I did take a pretty big digger on a patch of black (brown?) ice that surprised me on the otherwise soft, sandy trail and deposited on my, er, um...ass.  Which is where being in my line of work comes in rather handy.  In between appointments, I ducked into the Kahtoola booth and bummed a pair of MICROspikes from Danny Giovale, the very man who built the damn things.

What are MICROspikes?  Glad you asked.  They are one of those startlingly simple engineering marvels, a set of low-profile crampons integrated into a durable rubber housing that slips easily over whatever footwear you got.  You might be more familiar with Yaktrax, but they are truly pedestrian in comparison to the adventure ready MICROspikes.

Where can you get them?  Glad you asked.  Try here:

http://www.backcountryedge.com/kahtoola-microspikes-2011.aspx

So, I'd secured traction but needed advice on how to get up higher.  Danny began saying something about Grandeur Peak but then got pulled in another direction, leaving me with an imagination-inspiring name but no idea how to get there.

Lucky for me, those-in-the-know were milling all around me, including Piep. 

Piep (John Pieper by birth, but, take it from me--a Steven known to many/most as Leon--he is and shall ever be Piep) had been living with his lovely family in Durango, Colorado for the past several years but had returned home to Salt Lake about a year ago, taking a Director of Sales and Markeing position at Gregory Mountain Products.  He was well familiar with the area trails and he seemed to agree with Danny that Grandeur Peak was well worth visiting.  After dinner, he grabbed a topo map, outlined the approach options and then insisted that I take the map along with me when I headed back to the hotel to catch a few hours of sleep.

Thanks, Piep.

I just realized that I've failed to touch on the fact that the daytime temperatures in town had been hovering in the upper 40's and low 50's even though Salt Lake City sits at an elevation of 4,226 feet, a good 3,800 feet higher than my Manheim home.  In other words, winter hadn't come to the Great Basin any more than it had come to the Susquehanna Valley.

And, so, the next morning I awoke to precipitation, but not the fluffy white stuff that I'd hoped to find.  I drove up above town, hung a right on Wasatch Boulevard and then took a left up Millcreek Canyon in the dark.  The moisture in the air still qualified as rain but just barely.  A good sign.

As soon as I stepped from the car, I was headed uphill through a National Forest picnic area.  The lungs were immediately heaving despite the fact that I was creeping along at a rate well shy of my normal pace.

A sign came into focus in the beam of my headlamp and confirmed that I was headed in the right direction.

That was fractions of a mile farther than I expected which immediately illuminated the fact that I'd forgotten to bring my Garmin.  Who cares right?  I know, I know, BUT it meant that I was going to be ascending in the dark with no real idea of what time it was or how far I'd gone which could be problematic since I needed to eventually to get back to the hotel before returning to the Salt Palace for another day of work.

The effort required in the climb and my love of running in the dark combined to back burner those concerns.  Per the topo map, I was looking at well over 2,500 feet of climb in those 3 miles and my legs and lungs were busy confirming that reading.  I cycled between running, power hiking and straight-up trudging, all with an oh-so-happy grin.  You know the kind...shit-eating some call it, though that phrase has always been lost on me.

Periodically, I'd peek to my right or my left depending on the turn of the switchback and ponder the void, wondering at the invisible drop.  I was so captivated by the darkness, it took me longer than it should have to realize that I was ankle deep in snow and more was falling.  A look back over my shoulder confirmed that I'd been plowing through snow for quite some time.

Such is the power of the MICROspikes.

Long (too long already) story short, I ended up turning back before the top out, a decision I'll probably always question, but the appropriate call given my not being able to confirm the time but being conscious of my going pretty darn slow given the conditions and my flatlander lung capacity.

Thanks to the short hours of winter daylight, I didn't see a single drop of sun on my morning runs but I loved everything I could see in the tunnel of light that I carried with me.  I look forward to getting back up to Grandeur (or anywhere else Piep or other locals can point me toward) in August and getting in a run or two ahead of taking another shot at the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase up in Park City (just confirmed today as again being part of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup series!) on the Saturday of Summer OR.

Then, if the body holds up, I'll be back through Salt Lake in October for the drive down to Moab for the SlickRock 100.  Pretty stoked.

And, just to return to the good omen of the empty flights, Salt Lake sent me off in style with an unexpected meet-and-greet (a run-in...get it?) at the airport with the iconically-mustachioed Nick Offerman.

Who?  You know who.

Pretty random, I know, but good times nonetheless.  Don't let the scowl fool you (his, not mine), he was a sweetheart.

If I hadn't alreay returned Piep's map and Danny's MICROspikes, I might have clued him in on Grandeur Peak.

Next time.

this must be the place...right?

Standing high above Salt Lake City with the awe-inspiring backdrop of the Wasatch Mountains and the sweeping valley below, it's easy to understand Brigham Young's famed "this is the place" utterance when he and his fellow Mormon pioneers reached the end of their long journey west.

Over 160 years later, Salt Lake City has become the place for something other than an escape from religious persecution and a new and bountiful home.

It is the now the twice annual host of the Outdoor Retailer trade show, a head-spinning gathering of various manufacturers of backpacking, climbing, paddling, trail running (all the shoes down in shoeville!!!) and other outdoor adventure gear.  Each January and August, vendors unveil the innovations bound for store shelves 6 months later.

For a gear junkie, it's a sight to behold.

But, for a retailer trying to carve out a greater niche in the marketplace, it also plays host to a lot of hard work compressed into a short amount of time.  At this point, after several years of attendance, I can barely imagine not going to OR, as it's commonly referred to within the industry.  The shows mark the year with far greater reliability than the temperamental passing of the seasons.  It may or may not snow, but, dammit, the Winter Outdoor Retailer show WILL happen in late January.  Count on it.

So, this IS the place and, lest I sound like I'm complaining, attending OR also means easy access to buttery singletrack and the advantage of still being on Eastern time so I can bag 5-10 miles each morning before "work" on trails like this perched 5,000+ feet above sea level (note SLC way down below):

  

Makes punching the clock a whole lot more palatable.