What do to, what to do?   I’ve really not been doing much running as of late, and feeling a little bad about that.  I’m missing it, and it’s time to get back on a regular schedule.  It’s alway easier for me to get out and do my runs when I have some goals in mind, and 2008 will be no different.  Compared to the last few years, 2008 will be very mild, I’m going to do some races, but they will be fairly close to home, and pretty low-key affairs.  Just running to be out running and enjoying it. 

For 2008 I’m currently planning to run

January – Mountain Mist 50k North Alabama, this was the first ultra I ever ran and will be my SIXTH running of it, after completing 10 of them, you get a nice jacket.  I probably won’t be in great shape at this time, but it will be a great long workout. We lived in Huntsville for years and Ashley was born there, so it’s a great chance to go back and visit.
February – Mount Cheaha 50k Central Alabama,  3rd running of this race, I’ve run it every year, the first year, I placed 10th overall, 3rd place over 40.  A very tough and rugged trail run.  A very well put on and fun point to point 50k.
March – Carl Touchstone 50 miles Mississippi, I’ve never run this race, but it’s supposed to be nice and will be a good, fairly easy 50 miler to build some endurance.
April – Barkley (yikes!) Tennessee, I am actually hoping to do much better this year, if I can  take some exceptional hill climbing fitness and my experience from last year, possibly to make an official 2 or MAYBE even 3 laps (60 miles, the fun run).

 That’s all I have on the agenda and I probably will not do a lot during the summer.  The last 3 years I have trained like a maniac in mid-summer, mid-day Florida heat, this year, I think I’ll not do that.  More likely to take it easy, rest, and pick it back up in the fall.

Barkley Marathon is a very extreme, mysterious, ‘underground’ sort of event, that I had the priveledge of participating in early this year in Tennessee(100 miles).  I’ve been thinking about that event again lately. I maintain the mailing list for the Race Director, and as things are being prepared for next years events, my thoughts go back to that crazy day .  I did write a race report, with photos and videos, but didn’t really let very many people know about it.  In a sport(ultra running) that is already on the fringe of fringe sports, Barkley is over the cliff.  When you decide to enter events that are essentially impossible to finish for almost everyone, (most years there are no finishers), they light a cigarette to start the event, and the race shirt says ‘Endless suffering without a point’, well, let’s just say it doesn’t bolster the argument to friends and family that you are a sane individual.  That seems to get questioned more and more these days.

http://www.daveharper.com/Barkley/index.htm

I was playing an email game with my daughter and some friends, where you think of one word to describe the person you are emailing and what they mean to you.  My daughters one word description of me was WILD.  Not great, not inspiring, not loving, not caring, not honest or strong… WILD.       

I’m a little afraid to ask, but how about it.  Describe me in one word …. just one single word. Send it to me and to me only via email.  I’ll post the results afterwards if they are printable, without your name of course.  I’ll send you an email you can forward to others with the instructions for doing the same.  It’s enlightening to see what folks think about you, as you see can above.

In any case, here is the race report that I wrote from Barkley, it has photos and short video clips of different parts of the course, finding the books, etc.  http://www.daveharper.com/Barkley/index.htm

Well, I am finally home, and managed to take care of most of the ‘must do’ items that were awaiting my return.  I’ve uploaded several photos from Furnace Creek in my Photo Gallery with some explaination for each. http://daveharperphotos.irun100s.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=43192

 While I was in California, my Dad was having some issues of his own, and during my time away, he had chest pains, went to Dr. for tests, scheduled and had open heart surgury to bypass two 70% clogged arteries, with a third completely closed.   Uh, ok, he was fine  before I left.  He is otherwise in excellent health and never had an actual heart attack or damage to his heart ( he walks a couple/three hours every day) and is recovering wonderfully.  Though I’ve not been able to visit, as I’ve been sick myself and can’t chance being near him.

I’ve been very sick since the event, with sinus and lung congestion/coughing.  I suspect I was actually getting sick as the race was beginning.  My family had been all circulating a very bad cold for the last couple weeks, and I’d avoided getting it, I thought.  I think I was actually becoming ill as the race was starting, and this was part of my problem with lack of strength/energy.  That is pretty much how I felt, weak, achy, tired, even though I was trying to ride 500 miles.  The cold air, especially at night, just made things worse and started a cough that really hampered my efforts.  In any event, it’s over now, I rode 300 plus miles with 200 of it into headwinds, and much of it uphill and on horrible, rough, slow pavement.  I’m rather glad to have it behind me. 

Everyone wants to know “what’s next”, and I’ve yet to have anyone believe my answer, “Nothing”.  I am pretty much finished with the ultra events for now.  I’ve accomplished everything I could imagine, in fact, much more that I ever would have dreamed I was capable of doing.  Two Western States 100’s in a row, Three Badwater 135’s in a row(one of them 10 days after doing WS 100).  A total of 7 100 mile or more completions, four 100 Kilometer runs(62 miles), seven 50 milers, 10 50k’s plus pacing for 50 miles on three occasions for friends in 100 mile runs, and most all of these done out West in snow, or high altitude, and with tremendous amounts of climbing.  Just prior to all that, I completed six Ironman distance Triathlons(2.4 mile swim/112 mile bike/26.2 mile run).  I’m proud of what I’ve done, and am at a point that I’m ready to move on to new challenges and adventures.

On Tuesday, two days after FC508, after getting my bicycles and equipment packed and shipped home, I had time to do some hiking/running near crew Steve’s house outside of Los Angeles.  I did 3 1/2 hours in some very cool mountains, some photos of that are in the photo gallery, including a find of some clam type seashell fossils in the trail.  These fossils where at about 1,100 foot elevation and 8-10 miles from the ocean, but they are clearly from a time when they were under the ocean, very cool photo of them in the gallery.

 Thank you so much for all the well wishes and encouragment during my event.  I appreciate it more than you know!

From Dave. After end of my race.

I want thank everyone for the well wishes, both on the blog and privately. I will respond in due time, but am posting this before I have been able to read them.

I gave it my all, but again came up short in this difficult event. I went 308 miles at which time it became apparant I would not have time to finish the remaining 200+ miles before the end of the event..

My day started fine, I rode comfortably, conservatively, and felt good. My plan was to go very easy the first day, to be strong in the night and second day. I did that exactly as I planned. By mile 70 or so, I was feeling some weakness in my legs, which I attributed to almost continual headwinds. The whole first day, into the night I was fighting headwinds that were draining my energy.
It was also very cool, then very cold at night. I train almost exclusively in Florida heat, usually the hottest part of the day, and this cool air had me coughing and hacking with an asthma like cough. I literally could not take a full breath.

At mile 200, I managed to climb 5000 foot Townes Pass, bundled up in all the clothes we had and started the 18 mile descent about 2:00AM. Toward the end of the descent, I was falling asleep on the bike. I was dozing off, and would wake up veerying across the road.
Traveling 35-40 mph. Steve and Willy were wantiing to stop me, but were afraid to pull up beside me with my erratic driving. I did make it down, and we agreed a nap would a smart thing for me.
We took a long break, but at this point, were getting dangerously close to putting ourself into a position where it would be impossible to have enough time to finish.
I had the help of a partial tailwind heading south through Death Valley, but my legs were not strong. By the time we arrived at Furnace Creek, I told my crew my calculations were putting a finish out of reach. They disagreed and convinced me to continue. 18 miles later at Badwater, we stopped, and again I explained I did not have the strength to do the remaining 235 miles at the pace needed. After some debate, I was back on my bike.
Three miles later iI stopped and told them I was done. A friend of mine crewing another racer, saw that something was going on, stopped. After a talk with him, I removed my bike computer watch, an all time/distance tracking devices. I would get back on the bike, and just ride. Ride hard, enjoy the scenery, be happy to be in the California Desert. I got on my time trial bike and cranked the next 30 miles of rolling desert at 24-26 mph average. As I started the climb out of Death Valley, I started throwing up, then dry heaving.. I stopped and ate, recovered, and continued climbing. I worked hard for another hour to climb Jubilee Pass. I got to the top made the short descent after it, but my pace was slow. Eventually, we all realized that it was impossibe to complete this event. I saw no honor in prolonging the suffering, just to say I rode 350 or 400 miles before the end of the race if a legitmate finish was not possible..

We packed it up, and started driving the 200 miles to the finish line. We stopped and tallked with many racer/crew friends on the course. Stopped and gave additional inner tubes to a Dutch team that had had multiple flats, and was out of spare tubes.

I honestly do not know what went wrong on this day. My bikes performed perfectly, my crew was perfect and never missed a beat, I rode exactly the way I wanted early on, and my training has been SO good. The headwinds and cold contributed I’m sure, but for some reason, my body just wasn’t performing at 100%.

I’ve attempted this race twice now, and both times come up short. I do these crazy events to find my limits, and in this case, I’ve found it. It was an adventure, but not one I’ll be repeating again. Thanks so much for all the well wishes!

From Dave…

5:30am Santa Clarita, CA.  Pre-Start.  

This is the morning.  All the training will be tested over the next 48 hours.   It is early here, I just took a shower, and relaxing for a few minutes while the crew gets things together before we go get some breakfast.  All the feeling of anticipation, worry, anxiety, excitement are there, more than ever.  I know I am ready to tackle this beast of a race.  I can’t wait for us to start.  As we are moving around the hotel, and gathering our last minute supplies and making final preparations, the intensity is slowly increasing before the 7:00am start. 

These are my last few minutes to truly relax.  From 7:00am for the next 40-48 hours, the clock will never stop.  Whether riding, eating, stopping to fix something or peeing, the clock is ticking and you are in a rush.  The clock never stops.  And my goal this year is to pretty much never stop either.  Not entirely true, we do have a plan of certain strategic breaks, but by and large, I must be on the bike all the time. 

Team is ready, I am ready, I can’t wait to get things started.  We are going to have a great time out in the California desert.  I can’t wait for the climbs, I think I’m ready for them, and the descents down the mountains, well, they are pretty scary with the high winds and often dark of night, but they are exciting and fun too.  Especially when you get to the bottom in one piece.

 That’s the last you’ll hear from me till this adventure is complete.  Other posts will be by my crew, Steve and Willy, or my wife, Tamara.

 If you want to monitor the FC508, which starts Saturday, visit http://www.the508.com/2007web/  They will have photos, video, and mid-event updates of what is going on. 

Two magazine articles were just published about my 2007 Badwater, Furnace Creek, Death Valley Cup attempt.  I’ve scanned both in with links below.   I think both writers did an excellent job. 

Competitor Magazine, did a nice full two page color, with this article in the ‘centerfold’ of the magazine.  It was very nice. http://www.daveharper.com/2007CompetitorPage1.htm

Focus Magazine is a Lake County Magazine, and also had  a very nice full page article.   http://www.daveharper.com/2007FocusMagazine.htm

Tomorrow I head to Los Angeles, for Saturday’s start of the Furnace Creek 508, and completion of the Death Valley Cup.  I believe I’ve prepared well this year.  My bicycles arrived at my crew’s house today(in LA).  I will spend Thursday putting the two bikes back together, and doing all my grocery shopping and preparing the van for two full days in the desert.  It’s going to be quite an adventure, I can’t wait to get started.  I can just imagine the first miles, it will be cool and very slow as we are escorted out of town, then the first climb on San Fransiquito(sp?) road, the Windmill climb a few hours later, Mohave, Trona, the Trona Hump, the anticipation before Townes Pass, at mile 200.   Two hours of maximum effort climbing, followed by sheer terror of descending at 50mph down the curvy mountain in the black of night.  The eary quietness of Death Vally as we travel south past Furnace Creek, then Badwater, where we will probably stop and pay homage for a few minutes.  Then the deceptively long and tough climb out of Death Valley, on rough roads and seemingly endless uphill.  Shoshone.  And that’s where I was forced to abandon last year.  In a way, it will be where I start this year.  Everything I am doing is to get to Shoshone, in good enough condition to finish what I started last year.  This time, we are going to do it.  My crew is ready, and I’m ready.

Here’s a recent article in the Orlando Sentinel, I was able to copy it from their site before it was deleted.  It ran with this photo, though I haven’t added it to the copy of their page.

CAPTION: David Harper runs down a road during the Badwater Ultramarathon last month in the desert of Southern California. He finished in abour 46 hours this year, his 3rd in a row.

Time is drawing near for the Furnace Creek 508.   Three weeks away.  Training has been going great, I’ve got several 100 plus mile rides in, 130 today and finished feeling strong.  My legs feel good.   The heat/humidity here is causing problems, just making it difficult to train as hard as I’d like.  In the humidity, the profuse sweating does no good, it doesn’t evaporate, so it’s not cooling you, it’s only depleting your body.  I manage it, and am getting good workouts in, but I so wish I could spend a couple, three weeks out West in the dry air.  Oh well.

I got my Cervelo time trial bike put together and it’s working well.   It’s very fast, but also pretty exhausting to ride.  My neck gets very tired because of the very forward, low position.  But it’s good.  I’ll be riding it for most of my rides between now and race day, and will actually raise the front about a 1/4 inch right before the race, to relieve some of the steepness.  With the Cervelo for the flat/rolling sections, and the Cannondale Six-13 road bike for the big climbs and decents, I think I’ve got the equipment part covered.   And my training has been good, so hopefully, I’ve got the physical part covered.   The race itself is going to be so difficult though, I have no illusions that it will be easy.  I expect the most difficult event I’ve ever done.

 I’ve had interviews last week with two different publications, that are doing stories on my Badwater/Furnace Creek races.  As those come out, I’ll post them.