Fall Racing Round-up

The last couple of months have been super busy for our family; we sold the house we had been living in for the last 9 years, bought new house closer to the mountains, moved into the new house, started projects on the new house, I raced a the Rut 50k, and UROC 100k, and Tanae and I went to a week long sports medicine conference.After I took a couple of weeks off to let my body recover and then started running when I felt like it. I made an attempt to start training for Skimo a few weeks ago and my body didn't respond well, so I backed off and am trying to listen to my body.  When it gives me the green light I will get after it again.  For now it's been great to run if I feel like it, or just hang out with the family if I don't feel like running.Here's a brief recap of the fall racing season:Vaquero LocoFor the 6th time I stood on the starting line at El Vaquero Loco in Star Valley.  It continues to be my favorite ultra.  It was my first, and I have a hard time imaging in a running season without it.  The race went well.  I finished 1st in a little over 5 hours.Pacing Wasatch 100I was lucky enough to be able pace my Patagonia teammate, Rod Bien, for the last 25 miles of Wasatch.  It was great to be able to spend all day on-course helping other runners and seeing lots of friends.  When I picked up Rod at Brighton I pushed him pretty hard the whole time (I wondered at times if we would still be friends after we finished). He rallied to get solid sub-24-hour time. After he finished, I slept a few hours and then went back to the finish area.  After I got there I heard my buddy Ryan was still out on the course, so I ran out to meet him.  Ryan was one of the people who got me into trail running and mentored me a lot early on, so I was super stoked to be able to do the last 7 or so miles with him.  Once Ryan finished I hopped in the car and drove home to spend the rest of the weekend with my family.The RutWhen I heard in July that Mike Foote and Mike Wolfe were going to be putting on a "true mountain race" at Big Sky I made sure I worked it into my training schedule.  I went to the race kind of tired since I was "training through", but was excited to see what the Mike's had in store. The race started fast and furious and stayed that way all day.  I was amazed at the burliness of the Montana runners that just kept hanging on and pushing the pace the whole time.  I managed to finish third and was very content given the field and that the day went so well. That is a race to put on your Calendar.  It is a rad course; truly a mountain run as advertised.UROCFor nearly the whole season UROC was on my radar as a focus race.  I knew that, because it would be the finale for the Skyrunning World Ultra Series, that it would be very competitive, and it surely did not disappoint. I have always struggled to race well in Colorado at altitude, but was hopeful that some gnarly snow and cold would normalize the field a little.  I raced well with the exception of one low spot that lasted for about 45 minutes. Once I put myself back together after the low, I rallied to gain some of the lost ground and finished in 11th overall.  The 11th there combined with Speedgoat and a bonus for racing three in the world series would land me 7th overall in the Skyrunning World Ultra Series Rankings.Overall I had an amazing 2013- so many good races and great adventures. I am in the midst of planning 2014 now, and am really psyched on doing more adventuring and a little less racing. Looking in to the future and setting some goals has helped me get some of my mojo back and I'm excited to start getting in "adventure" shape. As soon as I have nailed down some of the details I will post a schedule here.