The North Face 50m Championship in SF Has INSANE Elite Field - GAME ON!

The elite field for the North Face Endurance Challenge Gore-Tex 50-Mile Championship in San Francisco, CA, was recently released and...holy speedskates, it's a showdown! I'm seriously eating crow from my premature post last month. The prize purse remains one of the biggest in the sport - $10k for first, $4k for second, $1k for third for both men and women.

For the men, you've got the top 3 finishers from 2012 returning - former winner Miguel Heras, Francois D'Haene, and Cameron Clayton - as well as Sage Canaday, Max King, Dakota Jones, Tim Olson, Rob Krar, Dave Mackey, Hal Koerner, Rickey Gates, Mike Foote, Team inov-8's Gary Gellin and USATF Trail Marathon Champion Alex Nichols, Jorge Marvilla (with a recent 1:09 finish at the Berkeley Half Marathon), Ryan Sandes, Dave Riddle, Jason Schlarb (5 wins this year!), Mike Wolfe, Michael Wardian, Jason Wolfe, Karl Meltzer, and MORE. Incredible line up!

The women's competition is similarly stacked. 2012 winner Emilie Fosberg is back, as is 2nd place finisher Stephanie Howe, and they will be running with Rory Bosio (winner and CR at UTMB in Sept), Anna Frost, Olympian Magdelena Boulet, USATF 50-mile champion Cassie Scallon, USATF 100k champion Michele Yates, Jenn Shelton, Mexico's Silvia Correa Jimenez, Jennifer Benna, Aliza Lapierre, Joelle Vaught, and the list goes on.

It's going to be a barn burner! Hope to see you there. If you are out there taking pictures, be sure to post them on Instagram/Twitter/Vine with the tag @thenorthface and #ECSChampionship between Dec 4-11 to be eligible for North Face prizes.

And good luck, everyone!

Full list:

GORE-TEX 50 MILE - ELITE WOMEN
FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	CITY	STATE
Ashley	Arnold	Carbondale	CO
Cynthia Lauren	Arnold	Lexington	KY
Jennifer	Benna	Reno	NV
Lyne	Bessette	Topsfield	MA
Melanie	Bos	Kelowna	British Columbia
Rory	Bosio	Truckee	CA
Magdalena	Boulet	Oakland	CA
Kerrie	Bruxvoort	Broomfield	CO
Christina	Clark	Guelph	Canada
Silvia	Correa Jimenez	Mexico Distrito Federal	Mexico
Lauren	Dils	Kentfield	CA
Emelie	Forsberg	Troms	France
Sheri	Foster	Calgary	Canada
Anna	Frost	Metz Tessy	France
Brandi	Garcia	Atlanta	GA
Jaime	Gile	Fayetteville	AR
Kelsey	Gray	Kalamazoo	MI
Rachel	Hanson	Flower Mound	TX
Charmaine	Horsfall	Leeds	UK
Stephanie	Howe	Bend	OR
Andrea	Jarzombek-Holt	Portland	OR
Anna	Jefferis	Santa Barbara	CA
Catrin	Jones	Victoria	British Columbia
Megan	Kimmel	Silverton	CO
Megan	Laib	Santa Monica	CA
Aliza	Lapierre	Williston	VT
Sarah	Lavallee	Kailua	HI
Kristina	Lewis	Boulder	CO
Gina	Lucrezi	Carbondale	CO
Sally	McRae	Aliso Viejo	CA
Simone	Moro	Bergamo	Italy
Erica	Namba	Berkeley	CA
Maggie	Nelsen	Encinitas	CA
Rachel	Paquette	Victoriaville	Canada
Amy	Phillips	El Dorado Hills	CA
Cassandra	Scallon	Boulder	CO
Jenn	Shelton	Durango	CO
Diane	Van Deren	Sedalia	CO
Joelle	Vaught	Boise	ID
Katie	Wadden	Vancouver	Canada
Michele	Yates	Littleton	CO
GORE-TEX 50 MILE - ELITE MEN
FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	CITY	STATE
Joshua	Arkins	Rogers	AR
Florent	Bouguin	Québec	Canada
Dylan	Bowman	Mill Valley	CA
Noah	Brautigam	Truckee	CA
Scott	Breeden	Bloomington	IN
Sage	Canaday	Boulder	CO
Adam	Campbell	North Saanich	Canada
Frank	Caro	Ventura	CA
Jay	Cech	Portland	OR
Cameron	Clayton	Boulder	CO
Jeremy	Clegg	Nanaimo	Canada
Francois	D'haene	St Julien	France
Gerad	Dean	Mount Shasta	CA
Felix	Dejey	Metz Tessy	France
Scott	Dunlap	Woodside	CA
Fritjof	Fagerlund	Uppsala	Sweeden
John	Finn	El Cerrito	CA
Christian	Fitting	Berkeley	CA
Matt	Flaherty	Bloomington	IN
Mike	Foote	Missoula	MT
Martin	Gaffuri	Annecy	France
Rickey	Gates	San Francisco	CA
Gary	Gellin	Menlo Park	CA
Sjaan	Gerth	Toronto	Canada
Ryan	Ghelfi	Ashland	OR
Neal	Gorman	Charlottesville	VA
Jeff	Gosselin	Quebec	Canada
Jonathan	Gunderson	San Francisco	CA
Chris	Hauth	San Francisco	CA
Miguel	Heras Hernandez	Bejar	Spain
Peter	Hogg	Livonia	MI
Dakota	Jones	Boulder	CO
Max	King	Bend	OR
Hal	Koerner	Ashland	OR
Joshua	Korn	Ogden	UT
Daniel	Kraft	Grand Junction	CO
Robert	Krar	Flagstaff	AZ
Marc	Laveson	San Francisco	CA
Dave	Mackey	Boulder	CO
Jorge	Maravilla	Vallejo	CA
Karl	Meltzer	Sandy	UT
Alex	Nichols	Colorado Springs	CO
Timothy	Olson	Ashland	OR
Michael	Owen	Pomeroy	OH
David	Riddle	Cincinnati	OH
Danny	Rogers	McLean	VA
Phil	Sanderson	San Francisco	CA
Ryan	Sandes	Cape Town	South Africa
Jason	Schlarb	Missoula	MT
Bob	Shebest	Windsor	CA
Brian	Tinder	Flagstaff	AZ
George	Torgun	Berkeley	CA
Riccardo	Tortini	Houghton	MI
Chris	Vargo	Colorado Springs	CO
Manuela	Vilaseca	Rio De Janero	Brazil
Zach	Violett	Bend	OR
Gregory	Vollett	Metz Tessy	France
James	Walsh	Encinitas	CA
Michael	Wardian	Arlington	VA
Jeremy	Wolf	Missoula	MT
Jason	Wolfe	Flagstaff	AZ
Mike	Wolfe	Missoula	MT

Distance Invites Demons

Distance running is a journey that invites, if not demands, considerable self-reflection. I suspect it is why many of us gratefully push past hour two of a run on a regular basis - as the miles pile on, you soon exhaust the relentless hamster wheel of work/kid/life self-smalltalk that consumes our brains day-to-day, freeing your mind to pursue more meaningful questions unshackled. The longer the run, and the farther into nature you explore, the deeper you permit yourself to dig into the soul and find what awaits. If the journey is long enough, even the most dormant of demons will pop up and join you for a few miles. Distance will always invite demons with arms wide open.

Distance can wear many faces too, I have recently learned. A few months ago, I was given a career opportunity one sees rarely in a lifetime – come join a growing company of amazing mobile rock stars that find themselves in the eye of the greatest technology shift the world has ever seen. Just one catch, the commute is a tad long…about 2,245 miles to be exact. To do the job right, while keeping the family as happy as possible, meant working in Pittsburgh, PA, and living in Woodside, CA. Christi, my wife and career consigliore of 20+ years, sized it up similarly, and with the GAME ON nod of her head, distance invited itself into our lives in a whole new dimension.

In retrospect, it was a bit foolish of me to think that long runs might somehow prepare me for the solitude that creeps up when you work away from home. When you run, you invite solitude into your life, and in that sense control it. When you spend 4-5 nights a week in a hotel room away from your family, your bed, and the home trails that keep you grounded, solitude soon controls you.

Not at first, of course. In the first few nights, you secretly revel in your newfound freedom. No snoring pugs hogging the covers, no screaming kids needing baths mid-meltdown, not having to ask permission for a quick run….heck, you don’t even have to pick up the towels. For the first week or two, you feel like pinching yourself every morning. And THEN you order room service! Word.

But by week three, you begin to miss those familiar burdens. The snoring dog who warms your legs, assuring you with the harmonious purr of a dozen face folds that you are at home with your pack. The kids that always need you do actually need you, and their absence forces the realization of how fulfilling that truly is. The hotel room that snaps back to its sterile and apathetic state of cleanliness every day at 10am begins to feel like a bad looping video or a glitch in the Matrix, adding a touch of anxiety to the quiet. With all the time on your hands, the solitude consumes you.

The trails, however, are always good for reprieve and it didn’t take long for me to find the gold and orange hills of Schenley Park, Frick Park, and the river trails just outside of my regular hotel. The autumn colors of Pittsburgh are breathtaking, and I soon found a morning ritual of getting lost in the hallows as the morning sun chased away the frost and filled the campuses with young and vibrant smiles. For a few hours a day, it was a much-needed sanctuary.

(Frick Park, Pittsburgh, PA)

But after a month away from home, separateness settled in like some new form of gravity. Phone calls from the family came less often, their lives naturally adapting without my presence. FaceTime video calls lost their novelty, and contact with my family became little more than Instagram photos and one sentence updates at a regularity I share with Facebook friends I’ve never met. I even felt lonely at home, out of touch with their day-to-day lives, little more than a ghost in their busy weekend rituals. FUCK. NOT HOW I SAW THIS PLAYING OUT.

Then in a single moment of clarity, all that anxiety disappeared. After a Saturday morning 10-miler in the hills of Woodside, I returned home to see Christi and the girls through the front window laughing, having breakfast, and playing with the dogs. They were happy. Like, crazy happy. In fact, I was the only one choosing to be anything less than gleeful. ME. BY CHOICE.

A beat, a pause, a breath…aahhh. A “long run revelation” for sure. I am out of The Pit.

(My girls)

Then Quinn, our almost-3-year-old caught sight of me, and pressed her face to the glass with a smile full of drool, bouncing enough to attract 7-year-old Sophie and the dogs who soon steamed the windows with their anticipation. I pressed my face right back, humbled by every precious second I have to share with them. I am happy too.

Pittsburgh greets me with a smile now too these days. My coworkers have become friends, a little retail therapy got me a fresh and Pittsburgh-ready wardrobe (wakka-ow!) to explore the neighborhoods, and I no longer need a map to find my favorite trails even in the dark. Family vacations are revered with renewed anticipation, and I find myself delighted with the warmth of California winter weather that weeks ago felt like it chilled to the bone. My runs have again become a place to explore, not escape. Life, once more, seems full of potential and poetry as far as I can dream.

(New city duds - it's all about layers!)

I may have run with my demons for a stretch, but I’ve found a new gear now and dropped those bastards. They never could pace the long runs anyway. ;-)

Kiss your lovies, everyone. See you on the home trails, East or West.

 - SD

Ultra Race Lotteries for 2014 - Adventure Awaits! Western States Lottery Going Now...

It's lottery season again in the world of ultrarunning! Time to put your name in the hat for your favorite races and see how the Lottery Gods determine your fate! The Western States 100m lottery is on right now (already nearing 2,200 entries), and given the changes for 2015, it will be the last year you can qualify with a 50-miler. So don't hesitate - put your name in!

Below are a few links to popular races that have lotteries (and a few that don't...yet):

Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, June 28, 2014 (Lottery Nov 9-16, Drawing Dec 7)

Way Too Cool 50k, March 8, 2014 (Lottery Dec 2-8, Drawing Dec 10)

Lake Sonoma 50m, April 12, 2014 (No lottery - reg opens Dec 15)

Miwok 100k, May 3, 2014 (Lottery Dec 1-10, Drawing Dec 12)

Massanutten 100, May 17, 2014 (Lottery Jan 1-8, Drawing Jan 10)

Mt. Washington Road Race, June 15, 2014 (Lottery Feb 14-March 14, Drawing March 15)

Hardrock 100, July 11, 2014 (Lottery Now-Dec 1, Drawing Dec 7)

Tahoe Rim Trail 100m, July 19, 2014 (Lottery Dec 7-21, Drawing Dec 22)

Badwater 135, July ~15, 2014 (Lottery/app Jan 20-Feb 1, Selection Feb ~15)

Vermont 100, July ~20, 2014 (No lottery - reg opens around Jan 1)

Leadville 100, Aug 16, 2014 (No lottery - reg opens Jan 1)

Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, Aug 30, 2014 (Registration Dec 19-Jan 5, Lottery selection Jan 15 if needed)

Wasatch 100, September 5, 2014 (Lottery Dec 1-Jan 6, Drawing Feb'ish)

Ironman Hawaii World Championship, Oct 11, 2014 (Lottery Now-Feb 28, Drawing April 15)