Hey everyone,
I’m moving my blog over to Facebook. I give up. Facebook won and it killed my blog. Head on over to http://www.facebook.com/jessdeline and like my page to get updates from me, race reports, product reviews, etc.
Thanks!
Jessica

Yep.  It was 1 year ago today that we left Portland, Oregon for a road trip to Carlsbad.  We took 2 days so we arrived at our new home on January 6th. We also took pictures approximately every 15 minutes the entire trip down. If you haven’t seen this video before – here is the entire trip in 4 minutes.

That’s just about it – isn’t it?  2011 is nearly done.  What a year it was, but aren’t they all?

Very early in 2011, we moved to the San Diego area (Carlsbad to be exact) for a new job.  I was pretty excited to be getting out of the gloomy Pacific Northwest and it seemed like a cool company to work for.  Turns out – it’s a pretty awesome job.  It’s one of the first jobs I’ve truly loved in quite some time.   I call that a win!

Shortly after moving here we tried to get involved with people as quickly as we could.  Making new friends is a great way to get adjusted to a new area and it worked out pretty well!  We also got involved rather quickly with  the local softball scene.  We were fortunate enough to get connected with a pretty awesome team our first year in the new league down in San Diego.   So – some highlights of 2011:

• Moved to San Diego (January) & started a new job
• Worked on My Run documentary as Marketing/PR (all year)
• Worked as a producer on Eyes of Thailand (ongoing)
• Postponed Twin Peaks from February to October (new date going forward) due to extensive course damage
• Had some running issues (with my toe) that kept me out of too much running for the first half of the year
• Shot a documentary film for the Leona Divide Trail Race
• Started coaching a women’s softball team in Carlsbad (to be continued in 2012 along with a team in the San Diego league!)
• Put on an awesome Harding Hustle and Twin Peaks race
• Had a long run of just over 8 miles (longest run in about 18 months)

I could list more but I think my year is best summed up in pictures:

JANUARY

Going Away Party

Home we left behind in Oregon

Halfway to Cali!

FEBRUARY

Twin Peaks “Fat Ass” Run

MARCH

OC Chilli Run

With Deb & Lindsey at The Abbey (West Hollywood)

APRIL

Softball Tournament in Phoenix

Flong Tournament

Softball in San Diego with AFCSL

Leona Divide – Lake Hughes, CA

MAY

Mission Bay

Padres Game

JUNE

E3 Expo – Los Angeles

San Diego 100

Champions!

Beach BBQ in Oceanside

JULY

Harding Hustle

Beach Party in Huntington Beach

AUGUST

LCP Softball Tournament in Portland

Softball World Series in Philadelphia

SEPTEMBER

Twin Peaks Training Run

San Fransisco Work Trip (and beers with Miki)

Twins Game in Minnesota (also had my Gall bladder out a few days later!)

OCTOBER

Twin Peaks

Halloween at Work

NOVEMBER

Holy Jim aid station @ Chimera

DECEMBER

Christmas with my Mom (at Carlsbad Beach)

That’s all for now – I don’t think I even captured everything that happened in this past year.

Happy New Year!
Jessica

Nope.  Not that kind of streaking.  I’m talking about running streaking.  Yep.  Running every day.  Starting tomorrow, I am planning to run every day until Jan 1st.  I think it’s a good way to finish off 2011 and start off 2012 on the right foot (or left).  It’s only 12 days and I do plan to try and keep  it going through January.

Will you join me?  You only have to run at least 1 mile per day.  If you are not a runner, why not start now?  You can run/walk and split it up any way you want too (like running one minute then walking 1 minute).

I set up a Facebook event if you’d like to join the challenge!

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

Sunday I went out for my weekly long run.  I was worried I’d be a bit sore since I played 4 softball games on Saturday but it wasn’t too horrible.  I had a pretty amazing 8 mile run along the Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad and along Carlsbad State Beach.  There is something magical about the ocean and running alongside the crashing waves.  The run was supposed to be relatively flat but I ended up with 2000+ elevation gain.  How did that happen?  The last mile was also a struggle.  It was my longest run in 18 months and I just did not have much energy at the end, as well as the fact that my hip was started to really bug me.  My final time was 1:34:0 which I was pretty happy with and the run was gorgeous!

Happy Running & Dirty Feet!
Jessica

Way back when I started this blog (2006?) I wrote frequently about my running adventures and posted lots of pictures. I’ve had my share of runners and non runners through the years that have commented on my blog inspiring them to run or inspiring them to run trails or inspiring them to run more, etc. I haven’t really blogged about my running adventures much in the past year or two. Perhaps it’s time to get back to it. In some ways, Facebook has ruined my blog, and in other ways I think I’m “kind of” afraid to post my running stories for fear that once I start talking about running I’ll get injured again! Injury has been a blog killer as well.

So… here we go. I have been running. The past 3 months or so I’ve been building a stable base of 25-35 miles per month. It’s not a lot of miles but I wanted to build a consistent base before I start ramping up again. On Saturday I had my longest run (7.3) miles in the past 18 months! It has been my longest run since before my knee injury in May of 2010. It was a pretty awesome run and I’ll post some pictures below. On Monday of this week I also had an amazing and short 3 mile run by my house. It was such a perfectly clear night and I could see miles of beautiful coastline, a spectacularly colored sunset, and picture perfect views of far-off Catalina Island. It’s hard to complain about going for a run when you through all those elements together.

O’Neill Park / Ladera Ridge Run – December 3rd, 2011

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

Another year, another epic race. Twin Peaks promises to bring a tough, beautiful and fun course. This year it did not disappoint!

My morning started early with a 4:45AM arrival at race HQ. Runners were already starting to gather for the 5:30AM early start. When I hopped out to move the supply truck, I was greeted by a field producer (Lauren Gaffney) from HBO Sports. She and her crew were there to film Catra Corbett as part of a special on extreme sports (set to air on October 18th). My amazing group of volunteers quickly got things rolling and the 5:30AM start came up fast. I was surprised that it was not freezing in the morning. The previous week had been cooler but things were starting to heat up. Jackets were barely needed (though the heat lamps did feel good!) and it was sure to be a sign of a warm day out on the mountain.

It was still a bit dark when I gave instructions to the early starters. Thankfully, the HBO crew had a large spotlight that lit up the starting line. Maybe they can show up to the start of all my races?? The runners were off into the darkness and it wasn’t long before the sun started to rise and the 7AM starters were mingling about. I saw many old friends and some new ones. One of the best part about ultras isn’t it?

I was surprised there only ended up being 84 starters (out of about 130 registered) but part of that was due to the weather related date change. Once the second group of runners was off it was time to set up base camp (a task which would have required a 3AM arrival if we did it before runners arrived. No thanks! I fired up my live runner tracking app and started to get data in from radio control. It was rather interesting to watch the race unfold. In the men’s race, early leaders were Dean Dobberteen, Edgar Igor Campos and Ron Gutierrez. They were also first to the top of Santiago Peak at mile 22. Dean had already opened up a 24 minutes lead by this early point in the race. Tiffany Guerra and Vanessa Jones battled it out early in the race but Tiffany opened up a 23 minute lead by mile 22. Those leads become 37 and 45 minutes as the runners bombed back down the mountain to the Holy Jim aid station at mile 30.

Mile 30-34 were the most difficult part of the race for almost every runner. Specially, miles 32.4-34.0 were runners climb a short distance and gain about 2000′ of elevation while the afternon sun starts bearing down on them with a vengeance. On a warm day, as single climb up West Horsthief is enough for most runners, but these runners were doing this during the second half of the race and it was their 3rd or 4th climb (depending on how you measure it). Lauren (a pacer) described her experience going down Horsethief: “The descent down Horsethief was surreal. I’ve never been in a war zone. But this trail seemed so much like a path of the walking wounded, like I was making my way to the battlefield past these runners who were struggling on to safety.” West Horsethief didn’t even spare lead runner Dean. It took it’s toll and by the time he and Ron reach Santiago Peak (mile 42) the second time, there was only a 7 minute gap.

Twin Peaks offers the chance for runners to drop down to a 50K option during the race. They must make the decision at mile 25 and they don’t get any official placement or awards. They DO get credit for finishing a 50K. The early stream of runners coming down the mountain to the finish line all took this option. In fact, 26 of the 84 runners opted for the 50K option. They were just happy to be done!

Dean Dobberteen, who had led the race since mile 10, came coasting into the finish with a time of 9:59. He became just the 4th person in 3 years to break the 10 hour barrier on this difficult course. Tiffany Guerra led the women’s race from start to finish and racked up a time of 12:18. They both earned $250 for their accomplishments.

The carnage was evident with a 52% finish rate. This is not a race to be taken lightly! The website hosting the live runcast also crashed though I suppose that wasn’t the mountains’ fault 26 runners opted for the 50K and 14 runners dropped altogether. Most of the dropped runners promised to come back and run the race again. They all seemed to enjoy their experience despite the pain and suffering! Several people had told me the views were absolutely amazing and possibly one of the clearest days they had ever seen up there.

What a beautiful day for an amazing race!

See you next year.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

Results With Splits
Results Summary

Pictures:
Janine’s Awesome Pics
Mieko
George
Christine
Greg (Pictures in those post belong to Greg Hardesty!)
Mark

Lauren’s Pacer Report
Steve Rose Race Report

The Harding Hustle started as a 30k race in 2010 since I realized there isn’t a lot of medium distance trail races close in to Orange County (most are ultra long, ultra short, or too far away).  In 2011 I decided to drop the 50k (officially – it still exists as a fallback) from Twin Peaks and add it to the Harding Hustle.  My first time race directing was the Twin Peaks Ultra in 2007 that started and ended in the same place as the Harding Hustle.  In fact, the 50k race is nearly the same except I like to have my named used in vain along the course so I added a second trip up the rocky Modjeska Peak.  Actually, the 50k was nearly 2 miles short in 2007 so the added trip up made it just over 31 miles.

So here we are in 2011 and my 3AM wakeup call so I (along with Christina, Tee & Martha) could get to the start by 430AM.  Shortly after we arrived at the race, Robert Baird quipped – “tell me why it is again you do these things?”  To which I said – “I always ask myself that right about now.  Ask me again in a couple hours.”

Under the cover of darkness (and rapidly rising sun), a very small group of early starters left for their 50k effort, followed at 6AM by the rest of the 45 starters.

Due to a bus getting lost and missing a runner pickup, I decided to start the 30k in two waves at 715am and 730am (61 runners total).  I really wanted to start them all together but the 715am group had been waiting for some time,  so I wanted to get them on the trail while I could.   Shortly thereafter, I found out that the first two 50k runners, Jon Clark & Jesse Haynes had already reached the first radio checkpoint – 9.1 miles into the race – a couple minutes before the 2^nd wave 30k start.  They were certainly tearing up the trail with lead 50k runner Michelle Barton not far behind and the thermometer heading up to around 90 degrees.

The day, and the race were certainly heating up.  Last year’s 30k overall winner, Gilbert Salazar was running with a handful of other super fast hopefuls.   The top 5 30k runners at the top of Harding Truck Trail were within 10 minute of each other – who was going to be the better downhill runner?  Turns out, Timothy Roberts who was first to the top of Harding and took home the 30k overall win with a new course record of 2:10:03.  He ran blazing 8.5 minute miles uphill (with 4000’ of elevation gain!) and just under 6 minute miles going back down.

The women’s 30k race was won by Wendy Marshall who was a last minute entry with a time of  2:49:52.  It was pretty exciting to not only see the speedsters but also those who were running their first trail race or first race of this distance.  Running up and down Harding Truck Trail is no simple task, and everyone who ran this (100% completion rate) is just plain awesome.  I heard some of the runners were talked into this race by friends, not knowing what they were getting themselves into.

It wasn’t long before I heard “first runner in through Maple2”.  I checked my watch, realized the lead 50k runner, Jesse Haynes, was at mile 22 in just over 3 hours.  Keep in mind there is almost 7000’ of elevation gain over the first 15 miles!  Jesse would go on to win with a time that will be hard to beat at 4:06:47 and Jon Clark finishing his first ultra with a very respectable 4:25:29 in second place.  Michelle Barton lead the female race from beginning to end as she was too busy chicking all but the top 2 guys in 4:36:52 and besting the second place female by over an hour.

It was quite a fantastic day by all accounts and the end result makes me proud of the work I put into the race as well as the work from all the super awesome volunteers.  Next year’s Hustle will tentatively take place on July 7^th, 2012.  Hope to see you there!

Check out some pictures here, here and here.
Happy Running & Dirty Feet,

Jessica

Clown shoes.   That’s what some people call them.  Gimmicks.  Fad.  Whatever you want to call them, Hoka shoes seem to be here to stay.  Karl Meltzer wore them for his entire run on the Pony Express trail.  Catra wears them and runs hundreds of miles per month in them.  They are making the rounds for sure.  When I first heard about them I was too busy being sucked into the barefoot running rush to notice, and I dismissed them off as a fad.  Then I got injured.  I partially blame my toe problems to running in minimal footwear.  I did all things right by easing into them very gradually – first walking around in them a lot them running low miles and ramping up.  But something happened to my big toe.  My Doctor told me to wear more cushion and get shoes that don’t flex too much in the forefoot.  What was I to do now?  Enter the Hokas.

I didn’t want to buy them at first, mostly due to the spendy price tag.  They are also not readily available (yet) in the United States.  So, you have to spend a lot of money on shoes you can’t even try on first.  I did a lot of research and couldn’t find one person who bought them and didn’t like them.  It was pretty much love at first site for anyone who had them.  So I bit the bullet and forked over my hard earned money for the Mafates (trail version).

You can see the box above and the shoes here:

They were immediately comfy when I first put them on.  I ordered them in my usual running shoe size and they actually seemed like they had a little too much room up front but I think they’ll be okay.  I’d order them true to size (at least the women’s version).  My first run was only 1 mile and they did take a little getting used to over that first mile.  The mechanics are a bit different than most running shoes, however that is mostly due to the cushiness.

Remember when playgrounds used to have sand?  Now they have that squishy surface that is supposed to be safer for kids.  I liken these shoes to walking around on that surface.  Some say these shoes are like riding a full suspension mountain bike vs. a hardtail (minimal footwear).  It may be a matter of preference to some and necessity to other.  If running in overly squishy shoes helps you run longer and more often then why not?  The same argument has been used for people who were plagued with injury and now run pain free barefoot.  The question I have for these shoes – is what effect do they have in the long run?  Are they weakening certain parts of your legs and feet?  Making others stronger?

My verdict is that they are awesome.  I have been running with no toe pain for about 4 runs now (2 miles each run).  They work well on pavement and dirt trail and they roll over small rocks like no ones business.  In fact, you won’t even notice many of the small rocks even if you go straight over them.  The shoes have a wider base which helps with stability and allows you to fly down technical hills with ease.  While the shoes seem taller, I don’t feel taller in them.  I think it’s because the foot sinks down into the cushy insole.  Aside from the wide base for stability and abundant cushioning, these shoes don’t flex much in the forefoot. Strange for a running shoe?  Perhaps.  But it’s just what the doctor ordered for me (literally).  In fact, these shoes seems to promote a more forefoot strike (like in minimal shoes) but instead of flexing off at the toes, it has more of a rolling or rocking effect as you go into your next stride.  The result seems to be a pretty smooth and efficient stride overall.  Consider me pleasantly surprised!

These shoes may not be for everyone but they are certainly pretty awesome and if you are looking for a change in your running footwear or have problems with your toes or not enough cushioning, then I would definitely give them a try!

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

I not so secretly started running again recently (on June 12th).  I’m sticking to the trails and keeping the distance short for now.  No real verdict on my toe (at least not a helpful one).  My first run was only 1 mile and involved some walking – but hey, I was out on the trail so I’m not complaining!  I’ve done 6 runs since then with my last one at 1.8 miles yesterday.  My toe feels okay.  I mean, it’s not perfect but so long as I can run I don’t mind a little bit of an achy breaky toe.  I’m pretty sure my mountain bike fall last weekend is what messed up my hip a little bit so that has been actually more of a concern than my toe and has kept me to flatter runs recently (uphill = no good on my hip).  Don’t get me started on that either.  I was going downhill and should of had the right away but some guys coming up weren’t moving.  I moved to the left then back right again and  my back tire slid out due to some loose rocks.  I survived (with a bit of blood) and they felt bad so we’ll leave it at that for now

I also picked up some Hoka One Mafate trail shoes.  They aren’t cheap and they look funny but if they help me run then why not?  So far I love them and I’ll post a review soon.  Also, with another run or two left in June, I’ve already ran 6.7 miles (0 in May and only 6 in April).  Double digits in July – here I come!

Both of my softball teams are done for now (sort of).  Our coed team was tied for 3rd in regular season but we won the playoffs!  Our womens’ team won our division handily with a 16-2 record.  That team has a tournament coming up this weekend and Philadelphia in August for the softball World Series!  Our baseball team is doing well.  4 games in now and in first place.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica