Catching Up on the past 11 months
Wow, it's been a bit since I wrote a blog post about a race... I feel like that past year has flown by and it most certainly has...
The last post I wrote was back in September 2018 at Run Rabbit Run 100. Since then, I've celebrated my One year in Colorado and we have a lot to catch up on. Just going to bullet point the major events. Let's get started...
-Since Run Rabbit Run, I was then able to run Javelina Jundred and set an unofficial Jorts FKT by running 100 miles in Jorts and a Hawaiian shirt for 100 miles in 24:51. #JortsFKT ;) Also My 3rd 100 in 3 months.
-I then raced out at the HURT 100 in January 2019. That was a struggle bus as it was my 4th 100 miler in 5.5 months. Finished in 31:23 with the help of my pacer, Caleb Baybayan (who got into the HURT 2020 race and I'll return the favor for him) and my family.
-After a long break for the Spring to rest my body and mend my mind from the 4 x 100 miler, I then got to invited to help out and meet the adidasRunners NYC and LA teams that came into Boulder to learn from Tim Olson and get some mountain running time as they were preparing for Infinite Trails World Championships in late May. More details on Infinite Trails later, but I got to meet a lot of amazing new friends from both cities and lead them on some epic trail runs in my backyard. That was a whole lot of fun with both crews.
-After the adidasRunners NYC/LA retreat, I was feeling really good with training and was getting ready to start racing again. I got in a decent training block and was signed up for local Colorado backyard ultra- Dirty 30 outside of Golden, CO in early June. The 50km race was a perfect rust buster after a long rebuild. Short story of the race was took a wrong turn early on and ended up finishing 10th Place Overall in 5:38.
-With Dirty 30 in the rear view, I had a quick turn around to get back to training... I was then invited by Tim to be a Run Mindful Running Leader for his retreat that was similar to the adidasRunners NYC/LA retreat and then followed that up by traveling to Iceland, Germany and ultimately to Bad Gastein, Austria to run in the Adidas Infinite Trails World Championship at the end of June.
This would be the first time racing abroad internationally and with sponsor adidasTERREX- Team Boulder with my awesome teammates, Julia German and Jason Contino. This was an amazing event and sponsor Adidas made sure this years event was a huge success after the first year was cancelled due to snow and hazardous conditions. This year would be completely a 180 flip in temperatures with 99-100 degree temps since a major heat wave hitting Europe due to winds blowing up from the Sahara.
In Colorado, just a couple weeks prior, we would get our last but very late snow storm in the middle of June. That did not prepare me for the heat at all but I knew I could run the required distances for the 15km, 900vm Prologue and the 60km, ~3600vm for my team relay.
In the Prologue, on Thursday, it was a crazy event with over 800 competitors; Professional athletes from all over and adidasRunners worldwide to create a huge coming together to celebrate the beautiful trails in Austria. It was just an honor to be here on the starting line with everyone.
I ended up running to a 25th Place Overall finish in the Prologue and helped our team seeding with the combined effort to start early on the relay portion of competition. Julia and Jason would also crush it and we were all excited for the relay.
After a day of rest on Friday and soaking in the Gastein Valley, we were amped for Saturday's Team Relay to begin bright and early. The relay went off at 4AM in waves and the fastest teams combined times from the Prologue would start first. We would start about 15 minutes after the gun and Julia was our Lead runner. Jason and I went to the incredible start line to send off our gal for her ~25km and 1900vm leg before tagging me and letting go for leg.
After Julia finished, I would run in the hottest part of the day on this ridiculously stunning Austrian course that summits two mountains in 60km and has ~12K feet of gain with rock scrambling and "skyrunning" feel. It was burly and I definitely thought it felt similar to Broken Arrow Skyrace in many ways. I felt good for the most part even though it was hot, but the back half and the second mountain climb was where I bonked hard with about 10-15km to go.
I ended up returning back to town in 8:06 for the leg and passed off to Jason our anchor. He would run the remainder of the race, ~40km with 2100vm. After Jason got back from his loop 3 route, Julia and I then would hop back in and finish with Jason as a team on a 1km loop through town before we finished in 16:51 for the 127km relay and 9th Overall in the Mixed Team Category.
Austria was absolutely incredible! I can't express how much gratitude and thanks to Adidas TERREX for allowing me to come and race Infinite Trails. I have so much love for the country and the wonderful people, new friends and memories made during this trip.
-After Infinite Trails, I got to hang in Munich with my good friend Josh Orr from adidasRunners NYC. We got to do some run touring and ate way too much gelato, doughnuts and schnitzel. Definitely such a blast having a couple extra days to relax post Infinite Trails before flying home to States. It was a really good time with Josh that I really didn't want to leave Europe. In fact, I missed my flight back. It was totally by accident since I read the arrival and departure times wrong... That was SO FUN (not)... After jumping through a few hoops and having Josh help me out, I had a flight out from Paris the next day. All was good and I'd be back in Colorado a day later then expected. *Reminder to always double check the departure times of international flights.*
-Coming back to the States was really rough. Maybe it was the jet lag or maybe it was the fact that the Europe trip really made me reflect really hard on my life, but whatever it was, I just felt off and felt I needed a big change. I'll be honest, I really just wanted to quit my job and not do much besides run and be wild in the mountains after the trip to Austria. Didn't end up quitting my job (yet), but definitely made a more conscience effort to streamline my life to be more balanced with both work and life.
-Into July now, nothing too eventful the first couple weeks besides figuring out life, working at the restaurant and training for my next race, Fat Dog 120 in August. The only thing in this month that was a big highlight was that I had been contacted by The North Face Japan Team to help pace/crew their Japanese Athlete Hiroki Shimura who was coming to Colorado to run the very tough 100 miler down in Ouray at the end of the month. The North Face Japan Team brought a whole film crew and photographers to document Hiroki's race as well as the whole Ouray 100. Even though I was out at Ouray, a little bit of me was a bit sad not to be out at High Lonesome 100 for year 3. Definitely missed the the HiLo 100 family as it was the whole reason I moved to Colorado after I won the first year race in 2017.
The North Face Japan team came out a week early and we all then headed down to Ouray for course recon and scouting for the film prior to the race. It was a blast getting the royal treatment for helping crew and pace the last 50+ miles of Ouray. The team manager for North Face Japan was super nice and paid for everything. Super THANK YOU to Rayno Tanaka and North Face Japan Team.
Hiroki ran such a great race since he was coming from Japan and sea level to run this 100 mile race with 42K Feet of Vert race at altitude. Mad props to him. He was so strong and getting to pace him the back 50+ miles was a challenge in itself with ~23K of vert still to be covered before we finished.
Hiroki dug deep and I brought him home to the finish in 36:36 for a 4th Place Overall finish in this gnarly and masochistic race. (Thanks to RD, Charles Johnston for the adventure). If you want a really hard race, look no further than burly Ouray 100 in the beautiful San Juans of Colorado aka "The Switzerland of America".
Pacing the back half of Ouray 100 was my last long run before Fat Dog 120. It was just so perfect with timing that I then went into a lovely two week taper. I rested aggressively and made sure I felt recovered and ready for my race...
Yay! We are all caught up. Somewhat. I probably missed a few life events but for the most part that has been the past 10 months or so... In my next post, I'll dive deeper into my race at Fat Dog 120.
Thanks for reading, everyone!
Happy Trails,
Anthony
The last post I wrote was back in September 2018 at Run Rabbit Run 100. Since then, I've celebrated my One year in Colorado and we have a lot to catch up on. Just going to bullet point the major events. Let's get started...
-Since Run Rabbit Run, I was then able to run Javelina Jundred and set an unofficial Jorts FKT by running 100 miles in Jorts and a Hawaiian shirt for 100 miles in 24:51. #JortsFKT ;) Also My 3rd 100 in 3 months.
 |
| Going for that unofficial Jorts FKT. PC: Howie Stern Photography |
 |
| FINISH LINE EMOTIONS. 24:51 #JORTSFKT PC: Paul Nelson Photography |
-I then raced out at the HURT 100 in January 2019. That was a struggle bus as it was my 4th 100 miler in 5.5 months. Finished in 31:23 with the help of my pacer, Caleb Baybayan (who got into the HURT 2020 race and I'll return the favor for him) and my family.
 |
| "You wouldn't want it to be easy" PC: Sunny Lee (Father) |
 |
| Finishing with my pacer Caleb. PC: Sunny Lee |
 |
| HURT 100 FINISHER. "NOT FOR THE WEAK" |
-After a long break for the Spring to rest my body and mend my mind from the 4 x 100 miler, I then got to invited to help out and meet the adidasRunners NYC and LA teams that came into Boulder to learn from Tim Olson and get some mountain running time as they were preparing for Infinite Trails World Championships in late May. More details on Infinite Trails later, but I got to meet a lot of amazing new friends from both cities and lead them on some epic trail runs in my backyard. That was a whole lot of fun with both crews.
-After the adidasRunners NYC/LA retreat, I was feeling really good with training and was getting ready to start racing again. I got in a decent training block and was signed up for local Colorado backyard ultra- Dirty 30 outside of Golden, CO in early June. The 50km race was a perfect rust buster after a long rebuild. Short story of the race was took a wrong turn early on and ended up finishing 10th Place Overall in 5:38.
 |
| Age Group Podium 20-29, I was 3rd. PC: Dirty 30 |
-With Dirty 30 in the rear view, I had a quick turn around to get back to training... I was then invited by Tim to be a Run Mindful Running Leader for his retreat that was similar to the adidasRunners NYC/LA retreat and then followed that up by traveling to Iceland, Germany and ultimately to Bad Gastein, Austria to run in the Adidas Infinite Trails World Championship at the end of June.
This would be the first time racing abroad internationally and with sponsor adidasTERREX- Team Boulder with my awesome teammates, Julia German and Jason Contino. This was an amazing event and sponsor Adidas made sure this years event was a huge success after the first year was cancelled due to snow and hazardous conditions. This year would be completely a 180 flip in temperatures with 99-100 degree temps since a major heat wave hitting Europe due to winds blowing up from the Sahara.
In Colorado, just a couple weeks prior, we would get our last but very late snow storm in the middle of June. That did not prepare me for the heat at all but I knew I could run the required distances for the 15km, 900vm Prologue and the 60km, ~3600vm for my team relay.
In the Prologue, on Thursday, it was a crazy event with over 800 competitors; Professional athletes from all over and adidasRunners worldwide to create a huge coming together to celebrate the beautiful trails in Austria. It was just an honor to be here on the starting line with everyone.
 |
| Race Start of the Prologue. PC: Sunny Lee |
I ended up running to a 25th Place Overall finish in the Prologue and helped our team seeding with the combined effort to start early on the relay portion of competition. Julia and Jason would also crush it and we were all excited for the relay.
 |
| Headed Out on the 15km race. PC: Sunny Lee |
 |
| Finishing up the Prologue. PC: Sunny Lee |
After a day of rest on Friday and soaking in the Gastein Valley, we were amped for Saturday's Team Relay to begin bright and early. The relay went off at 4AM in waves and the fastest teams combined times from the Prologue would start first. We would start about 15 minutes after the gun and Julia was our Lead runner. Jason and I went to the incredible start line to send off our gal for her ~25km and 1900vm leg before tagging me and letting go for leg.
 |
| The relay exchange from Julia to me. SO EXCITED!! *Bailee photobombing.* PC: Sunny Lee |
After Julia finished, I would run in the hottest part of the day on this ridiculously stunning Austrian course that summits two mountains in 60km and has ~12K feet of gain with rock scrambling and "skyrunning" feel. It was burly and I definitely thought it felt similar to Broken Arrow Skyrace in many ways. I felt good for the most part even though it was hot, but the back half and the second mountain climb was where I bonked hard with about 10-15km to go.
 |
| Headed up Graukogel. PC: Ian Corless |
I ended up returning back to town in 8:06 for the leg and passed off to Jason our anchor. He would run the remainder of the race, ~40km with 2100vm. After Jason got back from his loop 3 route, Julia and I then would hop back in and finish with Jason as a team on a 1km loop through town before we finished in 16:51 for the 127km relay and 9th Overall in the Mixed Team Category.
 |
| Final Loop around the Alpen Arena! So EPIC! Love my teammate! PC: Sunny Lee |
 |
| After the finish, my dad wanted a photo. Time doesn't reflect our result. We finished in 16:51. PC: Sunny Lee |
 |
| TEAM BOULDER CRUSHED IT! Mixed Team #9 Overall. Results from Infinite Trails Prologue and Relay. |
-After Infinite Trails, I got to hang in Munich with my good friend Josh Orr from adidasRunners NYC. We got to do some run touring and ate way too much gelato, doughnuts and schnitzel. Definitely such a blast having a couple extra days to relax post Infinite Trails before flying home to States. It was a really good time with Josh that I really didn't want to leave Europe. In fact, I missed my flight back. It was totally by accident since I read the arrival and departure times wrong... That was SO FUN (not)... After jumping through a few hoops and having Josh help me out, I had a flight out from Paris the next day. All was good and I'd be back in Colorado a day later then expected. *Reminder to always double check the departure times of international flights.*
-Coming back to the States was really rough. Maybe it was the jet lag or maybe it was the fact that the Europe trip really made me reflect really hard on my life, but whatever it was, I just felt off and felt I needed a big change. I'll be honest, I really just wanted to quit my job and not do much besides run and be wild in the mountains after the trip to Austria. Didn't end up quitting my job (yet), but definitely made a more conscience effort to streamline my life to be more balanced with both work and life.
-Into July now, nothing too eventful the first couple weeks besides figuring out life, working at the restaurant and training for my next race, Fat Dog 120 in August. The only thing in this month that was a big highlight was that I had been contacted by The North Face Japan Team to help pace/crew their Japanese Athlete Hiroki Shimura who was coming to Colorado to run the very tough 100 miler down in Ouray at the end of the month. The North Face Japan Team brought a whole film crew and photographers to document Hiroki's race as well as the whole Ouray 100. Even though I was out at Ouray, a little bit of me was a bit sad not to be out at High Lonesome 100 for year 3. Definitely missed the the HiLo 100 family as it was the whole reason I moved to Colorado after I won the first year race in 2017.
 |
| Getting up high and doing course recon. Mountain Selfie. |
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| Hiroki and I scouting the Red Mountains up Ironton on Ouray 100 course. PC: Sho Fujimaki |
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| Hiroki and me prior to scouting Imogene Pass. PC: Sho Fujimaki |
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| Photoshoot on Red #1. PC: Sho Fujimaki |
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| Beautiful moments sharing some mindful running lessons with Hiroki. PC: Sho Fujimaki |
The North Face Japan team came out a week early and we all then headed down to Ouray for course recon and scouting for the film prior to the race. It was a blast getting the royal treatment for helping crew and pace the last 50+ miles of Ouray. The team manager for North Face Japan was super nice and paid for everything. Super THANK YOU to Rayno Tanaka and North Face Japan Team.
Hiroki ran such a great race since he was coming from Japan and sea level to run this 100 mile race with 42K Feet of Vert race at altitude. Mad props to him. He was so strong and getting to pace him the back 50+ miles was a challenge in itself with ~23K of vert still to be covered before we finished.
 |
| Headed up to Chief Ouray Mine... What a mindfuck. PC: Sho Fujimaki |
Hiroki dug deep and I brought him home to the finish in 36:36 for a 4th Place Overall finish in this gnarly and masochistic race. (Thanks to RD, Charles Johnston for the adventure). If you want a really hard race, look no further than burly Ouray 100 in the beautiful San Juans of Colorado aka "The Switzerland of America".
 |
| FINISH LINE! WOO HOO! PC: Sho Fujimaki |
Pacing the back half of Ouray 100 was my last long run before Fat Dog 120. It was just so perfect with timing that I then went into a lovely two week taper. I rested aggressively and made sure I felt recovered and ready for my race...
Yay! We are all caught up. Somewhat. I probably missed a few life events but for the most part that has been the past 10 months or so... In my next post, I'll dive deeper into my race at Fat Dog 120.
Thanks for reading, everyone!
Happy Trails,
Anthony
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