I don't know for sure, but I think the Saw movie franchise is up to eleven or twelve films at this point. I stopped paying attention after the third one. Saw III was one of the most disturbing movies I had ever seen and I couldn't imagine how Leigh Whannell and James Wan could top themselves after the events of that movie. But the franchise kept going, and they were coming out with a new Saw film every year in the mid to late 2000s. Since the films were always released for theatrical runs around Halloween time, the tagline for each new film was always "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw". Well, I have a similar tagline that applies to April of every year in my world: If it's April, it must be Canyons.
On April 29th this year I'll be toeing the start line of the Canyons 100K in Auburn for the sixth consecutive year. There are several reasons why I keep showing up to this race. The event is very well run. Chaz Sheya, the race director, does a great job of making sure everyone is taken care of. I would recommend any of his races because I've done quite a few of them, and I've always had a great time. The aid stations and volunteers are top notch. The course is beautiful, fun, and brutally challenging. A lot of people, including me, run Canyons to qualify or train for Western States, and the race attracts a cool crowd of runners as well as some top talent in the ultramarathon community. Additionally, this race holds a special place in my world. These trails have seen me at my best and my worst. When I ran for the first time in 2017 and DNF'ed at mile forty-eight, I took it to heart. I trained harder, found more inspiration, and when I finished the race in 2018, it was a major turning point in my life. Although it was the second ultramarathon I finished, it was when I successfully finished Canyons in 2018 that I really felt like a true ultrarunner.
Let's talk about life leading up to Canyons this year. Well, first, there's fatherhood and family life. There is also my life working in accounting for a technology company in Silicon Valley. There's also the daily blog posts I've been writing about what it's like to raise an infant in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2023. Then there's going to the gym, running, snow sports, hiking, and then some. Being a dad has been so much cooler than I imagined. I remember last year when I ran Canyons, Sam was five months pregnant and I had a lot on my mind. I had no idea how the rest of the pregnancy would go, how the birth would go, or what kind of dad I would be. The lack of hill training and overwhelming psychological effects slowed me down in the race. During the last three miles I found myself trudging through a snowy, slushy, and muddy landslide in the dead of night. I finally arrived at the finish line at the China Wall Staging Area in Foresthill with fifty-five minutes to spare before the race cutoff. Even though I had finished, I missed the Western States qualifying cutoff time by five minutes. I just couldn't get there in time. It was a bummer, but I was happy for the finish. Three weeks later at the Bishop High Sierra 50-Miler, my mind was completely elsewhere. I tried to enjoy the race and the weekend in Bishop, but I had a really tough time being in the present. The anxiety that loomed over my head at Canyons followed me during the Bishop High Sierra 50-miler. I finished, but I wasn't at my best. I had a lot of time to think about everything during the seven hour drive back to Sunnyvale from Bishop. When I arrived home my mind was clearer and I was more at ease. It's funny what a long drive through the mountains alone can do to a guy's attitude.
Aidan is now eight and a half months old. That eight and a half months has gone by quickly, but a lot has happened. I've had so much fun being a dad to him. He's now crawling and yesterday when we were at the park, he crawled around on the grass for the first time. I'm pretty sure his mind was blown. Sam and I are also doing well and trying to figure out the logistics of when we're going to get married. We've been together for just under three years and have a baby, so we should probably get going on this whole marriage thing. Her business has been doing well, and I've been taking a few pet sitting gigs here and there. Work has been going pretty well for me too. I was recently promoted to Accounting Supervisor and I work with some pretty cool people. Yes, I'm a numbers guy, I work with spreadsheets all day, and I'm more or less a problem solver, but my favorite part of my job is rallying my team, coming together with them, and making things happen. It's always a great feeling to see the reactions from our Controller and CFO when we execute. Even though this past Fall and Winter have been very wet here in California, I haven't gotten to get out to the snow as much as I would have liked. Most of the ski resorts will be open in May and even into June, so hopefully after Canyons I'll be able to get a little time on the slopes. I'd love to go snowboarding in June, I've never done that before.
Now let's talk training. Even though I run consistently throughout the year, the training for Canyons always begins in January. Last year I wasn't able to train as much as I would have liked, and I relied on psychological strength, ambition, and optimism to get me to the finish line. It ultimately got me there, but more physical strength would have been helpful. I like to think that my training for this year's race has been more sufficient. I ran the FOURmidable 50K in mid-February, a course in Auburn with 6,000 feet of climbing. I also did my annual traditional through-the-night solo 50K in Tahoe on April Fools Day. That run went better this year than it did last year. I left the Bay Area at 9:00 PM on Friday night, arrived in Tahoe City at 1:00 AM, and began running shortly after. It was a fun night running through Tahoe under the stars along highway 89 on the west shore. At one point a dead coyote emerged in the beam of my flashlight, startling me. He was lying on the side of the road next to a snowbank. The poor guy must have gotten hit by a car. He stared straight at me, eyes open and everything. It was spooky. When I saw him, Rihanna's "Disturbia" was playing in my headphones. It seemed like the right song for this kind of encounter. Eventually the sunrise filled the morning with vivid color and I completed the fifty kilometers feeling really good. Tahoe was beautiful thanks to record snowfall. In addition to the long runs, I've been doing lots of hiking, and hitting the gym doing weight training. Hopefully the climbing and strength training will help when I'm hauling my ass up those steep climbs this weekend.
We'll be running a different course this year. Originally, the course was going to be nearly identical to last year, except this time we would be running past Devil's Thumb and down to Deadwood Canyon, turning around at the Swinging Bridge and heading back up. That's a pretty intense climb. But because of the record snowfall, most of the course ended up having to be re-routed this year. The original course was going to feature 16,000 feet of climbing. This new one will have 10,500 feet. Still tough, but not as brutal as it could have been. This new course is making me feel cautiously optimistic, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. This upcoming week I'm mostly going to be lying low. I'll be focusing on strength training and will probably only go for one trail run before race day. Sam and the little dude will be accompanying me this year. The race starts and ends in downtown Auburn, so it'll be easy for them to come meet me at the finish line. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them after I finish. There's still always the possibility of a DNF or things going sideways. I need to be ready for that, but I'm also keeping my eye on the prize. The prize being a successful finish, having a good time, and getting a Western States lotto ticket for 2024. Let's hope for the best. See you after the race!
