An Interview with the Jester - Part I

If you are pretty heavy into ultra distance running then you have probably heard of the “Jester” by now. Even if you have not have heard of him I thought it would be nice to get to know him. He has a Facebook page with quite a following called Run Jester Run Friends. http://www.facebook.com/groups/RunJesterRun/

His real name is Ed Ettinghausen, and he has been making quite a name for himself in the world of ultra distance running. Having completed the Badwater 135 race several times, considered by most to be the toughest foot race in the world. He finished the race in 2011 in 13^th place out of 95 entrants. He had a little tougher race in 2012 but still managed to finish in 23^rd place out of 96 entrants. He ran it again this year finishing in 24^th place overall in a time of 36:17:12. It is hard to compare each race with another from year to year, as start time, weather conditions and many other factors are never quite the same. The only thing that is always the same is the distance of 135 miles across the desert at the hottest time of the year.

Ed is one of the most humble men I have ever come across. He really is not one to brag about his accomplishments but I have asked him to do this interview for my readers and me. I thought I would try and get into the mind of the Jester by asking him a few questions concerning himself, his family and the world of ultra running.

Here is Part I. It consists of only two questions and answers. The answers are a little long, but very interesting, so I only included the two to make for a shorter post.

Runner’s Mania: What prompted you to start running in ultra races?

Jester: I ran my first marathon when I was 17, in high school, and I was hooked. One month later I ran my second marathon and ran a total of five marathons in a nine-month period. The next 28 years was a big dry spell for marathons. I was focused on family and work obligations and didn’t make the time for running. I did one marathon in 2000, with three of my kids, who were 11, 9 and 8 at the time. My 11 year old finished in 5:42, and I crossed the finish line with my 8 and 9 year old in 8:40. That was a very long day. It was another nine years, March of 09, for my next marathon. I ran another one in April, and then in early May I ran a local small marathon in Chino Hills that was a 1.8 mile loop around Ayala Park.

There were also 3, 6, and 12-hour race option taking place at the same time. I choose this race so that I could run the marathon while my youngest daughter, 14 at the time, could run her final long run, before running her first marathon in June.

While waiting for the race to start I noticed a car in the parking lot with a Badwater 135 sticker on the window. I got the notion that it would be fun to run a little bit with each runner and try to find out who this Badwater runner was. There were only 26 runners, so eliminating my daughter and myself, which left just 24 possibilities. Mind you, at that time I had absolutely zero interest in running the Badwater ultramarathon, but I had a curiosity about that ‘crazy race in the desert’. Besides I wanted to get some advice about possibly running a 50k, and I figured that maybe I could get some pointers from this guy on doing my first ultra.

After running with a couple of folks, who weren’t the mystery Badwater runner, I struck up a conversation with a guy running in cyclist compression shorts named Steve Teal. He was there for the 12-hour race, and was training for a triple Ironman distance triathlon, so needed to get some long miles in. Sure enough, this was the guy. He hadn’t just ran Badwater once, but had ran it four times.

He was happy to share his Badwater experiences, which were totally mind blowing to a guy that had only ran a couple of marathons. Although his stories were enthralling, my real intention was of course to pick his brain about running my first ultra, sometime way, way, way in the future.

We ran quite a few miles together, and by the time we were done he had convinced me to sign-up for my first ultra, two weeks down the road. This was a new 24-hour race around a one-mile course in Riverside, CA called Nanny Goat. I really didn’t think I was ready to jump from marathons into an ultra-marathon fray, but he convinced me that I had enough training and had nothing to loose. Since any mileage would count in the 24-hour race, I could go at my own pace, run or walk as fast or slow as I wanted, and I couldn’t DNF, a big plus in my book.

If it wasn’t just two weeks away, I might have talked myself out of it, but I registered for the race as soon as I got home that day. I heard someone once say that 90% of a race is just showing up. I don’t know about that, but I did show up and somehow made it through the whole 24 hours. I ended up with 102 miles for a third place finish. The rest, as they say, is history.

Runner’s Mania: I heard you made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. What can you tell us about that?

Jester: Well . . . kind of. Here’s the story. At that same marathon in Chino Hills where I met Steve Teal, I also met a woman from Corona named Yolanda Holder, also know as ‘The Walking Diva’. She introduced me to a running club she belonged to called Marathon Maniacs, which I joined. This group has some pretty hardcore marathoners that try to squeeze in as many marathons as they can into a year. Yolanda was planning to break the Guinness World Record for most marathons in a year by a female in 2010, by running 100 marathons. Again, not something I had any interest in at the time, but it did plant a seed.

In the summer of 2010 I heard about a nationwide contest sponsored by Runner’s World Magazine and New Balance running shoes for most race miles in a year. The winner would receive $25,000 for their favorite charity. Although by the time I joined the contest in August I had already ran about 32 marathons and four ultras, including one 100-mile race since January 1st, I was only in 5th place, with a little over 1,000 race miles, so I decided to step it up and see what I could do by the end of the year.

In the next five months I ran 38 marathons and 17 ultras, including six 100+ mile races, finishing the year with a 72-hour race in which I ran 238 miles. My total race miles for 2010 were just over 3,000. I barely beat out Yolanda, who had finished the year with 106 marathons to set a new marathon Guinness World Record.

Winning the contest was quite rewarding, especially when my chosen charity received that $25,000 check. Since I was already on a roll I decided to go for the male record for “most marathons in a year.”  My friend and fellow Marathon Maniac from San Antonio, Larry Macon, had also ran 106 marathons in 2010 finishing the last one with Yolanda. That broke his own previous male world record of 101.

Guinness allows any 365 consecutive day period to count for their records, so I decided to see how many marathons I could do in the next seven months. I finished my one year streak on July 16, 2011 at Badwater 135, which was my 135^th marathon/ultra in 365 days setting a new world record. I celebrated by running another 100 mile race four days later.

The amount of paper work and red tape required by Guinness to verify a world record is pretty extensive, for even a single event, but I had 135 separate events to provide documentation for. Guinness assigned me a case number and agreed that once I submitted the required documentation and they were able to verify each event, I would have the new world record.

Simple enough, just get all the paperwork together. Knowing the herculean task before me, I found plenty of ‘more important’ things to do, like running 100-mile races, so I procrastinated getting the paperwork together. Besides, who would try to do more than 135 marathons in one year, so why rush it?

In early 2011 at the Death Valley Trail Marathon I met a chap from the U.K. named Traviss Willcox who was hoping to break the world record himself. He had started his 365 days on Jan. 1, and by the time I finished my 135 in July, he was not on a pace to break the 135 marathons, but could still break 106. I promised Traviss that I would hold off submitting my documentation until the end of the year (another reason to procrastinate) to see if he could break the 106. He ended up doing 114, so I agreed to wait until he got the world record for 114, and then I would submit my 135 after Guinness verified his new record.

In the meantime Larry Macon had completed 113 marathons, and submitted his documentation to Guinness in January 2012, which Guinness confirmed within one week. Larry had just broken his own record for a second time. Although both Traviss and I had more marathons in a year than Larry, with Guinness it’s all about whose record is verified first.

 Guinness is a private U.K. company that has two revenue source, book sales and world record processing fees. There are three options for getting a record verified by Guinness. Submit the required documentation and pay the approximately $3,500 processing fee (the fee is actually in Euros, so the actual amount changes dependent on how the dollar is doing compared to the Euro) and Guinness will guarantee to verify the record within seven days. Option two is to submit the documentation with the app. $500 processing fee and Guinness guarantees to process the paperwork within one to two months. And for those that would rather pay nothing, Guinness does have the third option of no processing fee, but there’s also no guarantee on the timeline.

By the time Traviss finally had all his paperwork in order and submitted to Guinness it was March of 2011. For seven months Guinness kept requiring additional paperwork from Traviss, always offering to speed up the processing time for a fee. But finally by October of 2011 Guinness completed their verification process and awarded Traviss the new world record, with 114 marathons.

Finally, over a year after I had completed my 135 marathons, keeping my promise to Traviss of waiting until he got his Guinness World Record, it was time for me to submit my documentation and finally claim my rightfully earned record.  

All would be well and good, except during this whole process, Larry Macon was quietly stacking up marathons. By the end of October Larry had already surpassed Traviss’s 114 and was about to surpass my 135. There was no way I was going to pay the $3,500 fee, which I knew Larry would do without batting an eye. Besides, what would be the point when I knew I didn’t really hold the record if someone else had surpassed 135 but I beat them to the punch by getting my paperwork in before them.

So, on December 31, 2011, Larry Macon ran his 157^th marathon of the year. By the first week in January 2012, Guinness had already verified that Larry Macon was the new marathon king, with the Guinness World Record for Most Marathon Races in 365 Consecutive Days – Male.

There you have it. That’s the story behind my almost Guinness World Record.

But wait, there’s more! Guinness also gave me a case number for setting a new Guinness World Record for most race miles ran in one year, which I did around 4,500. Even Larry’s 157 marathons wouldn’t beat that. But at this point I really don’t feel like putting in the required effort it would take to claim the record. On the other hand I do have an interest in breaking the world record for most 100-mile races in one year, which is currently 36 held by my friend Liz Bauer. My friend Scott Brockmeyer holds the male record, at 28. So I’m seriously thinking about next year going for both the most 100-mile races in one year, while simultaneously trying to surpass my 4,500 race miles. We’ll see . . .

Cactus to Clouds an Epic Hike

Since I started hiking, about seven months after my first marathon back in 2000, I have always wanted to do this hike called "Cactus to Clouds." I first heard about it while talking with a hiker I met at the top of San Gorgonio Peak. He told me about this hike were one could go from near sea level to almost 11,000 feet in a single day hike. He said he tried to do it at least once a year, usually in the late spring or early fall. I looked the hike up on the internet and several local hiking books. They all said it was one of the toughest day hikes one could do and that it should be done with someone else who had done it before as the trail gets quite faint at times, with a lot of false trails made by the local wildlife such as dear and mountain goats.

The first 9.6 miles of the hike ascend 7900 feet for an average incline grade of 15.6%. Since there are some relatively flat areas of the trail and even some bits of downhill at times this entails climbing some grades in excess of 20% at times.

The day of the hike was Saturday, October 27, 2013. This would be almost exactly 13 years after I had first heard about it and now the time had finally arrived.

Several of our group had spent the night in Palm Springs, CA as the hike begins at the back of the Palm Springs Art Museum Parking Lot. The rest of our group met each other and drove in together from Redlands, about a 50 minute drive. Most of us got up that morning at about 2:00am. We left Redlands at around 3:20am. We met the rest of the group at the museum and by the time we were all packed up and ready to start it was about 4:40am, and pretty dark. It was also about 60 degrees which was actually just a little warm at first.

We donned our headlamps and began the trek. It was immediately apparent that this was going to be a steep and long hike. It didn't take long for our heart rates to climb and we had started at only about 450 feet above sea level. What would it be like when we reached 6,000 feet and above?

The trail became faint in several places very early on, mostly because it was quite rocky and not a lot of vegetation. I was leading and got us off on a wrong turn. We then had to back track a bit and Dev took over as he had the first part of the trail on GPS with his phone. This helped out quite bit as the trail was pretty tricky to spot at times. We quickly caught on to the fact that someone had blazed some of the rocks with blotches of white paint so they could be spotted a little farther ahead and this also helped out.

Dev, being young and in better shape, was setting a pretty tough pace for us as my heart rate was climbing to about 150 which is my maximum range for a marathon. I knew that I couldn't sustain that HR for more than about 4 hours so I commented that we should slow down a bit that I could not keep that pace up for over 12 hours or more. So Dev still went ahead scouting the trail while I led the rest of us at a more reasonable pace of around a 130-135 hear rate. Dev would wait for us whenever he was about to get out of sight.

We took short one to two minute breaks about every half hour or so and about every two hours we took a 10 minute or more break. After we had climbed for about an hour it was really awesome to look back toward the city lights from our elevated height! Below is a picture just before sunrise.

As with all hikes there are some who are slower and faster or having a good day or not so good day. So it was with our group. But we would always try to keep those behind in visual or hearing range and when we would lose sight or sound of them we would hold up until they caught back up to us. It was not a race but neither did we want to be in cold darkness any longer than necessary on the way back.

For the most part the trail was a relentless uphill trek but there were a few breaks here and there. The first 2 hours of the hike were in mostly darkness and then when the sun came out it began to warm up quickly. At least it was fall. The predicted high for the day at Palm Springs was 91 and we knew we would not get anywhere close to that, but still the sun would beat on us for the next 3.5 hours as there was no tree cover.

The last 2 miles of the hike to the saddle, just before the tram, were probably the most intense as far as elevation climb goes, but thankfully we did have some tree cover from time to time on this part. I can only imagine the difficulty encountered for those who try this in the heat of the summer. Some have actually died or have had to be rescued off this side of the mountain for underestimating how difficult it is and not taking enough food and water with them. Most of us took close to 1.5 gallons each with us and many said they went through all or most of it by the time we got to the tram 8 hours into the hike.

There are some pretty spectacular views of the San Bernardino Mountain Range to the north when doing this hike. Below are a few pictures.

Those last 2 miles of the initial 9.6 miles to the saddle took close to 2 hours to complete. It was very steep and rocky, with some places requiring a little pulling with the arms and hands up and over boulders etc. We took breaks a little more often on this section and at one point had a fairly long nutrition break.

After reaching the saddle at about 8300 foot elevation we took another 10 minute break and then headed out on the short .5 miles to the tram station. A lot of hikers call it quits at this point and take the tram back down to the parking lot, about 4 miles from Palm Springs and about 7 miles from where our vehicles were parked. We still had an 11 mile hike in front of us.

At the tram station, we took a very long break and most refilled water bottles etc. After our long break at the tram station we continued on for hour final 5.5 mile trek to the summit of San Jacinto Peak at 10, 834 feet. Even though this section was only about 2500 feet over the next 5 miles, a much less steep ascent than we had just accomplished, we were also at a much higher altitude and already tired from the earlier steep ascent. It was now after 1pm and we knew that we would probably have a little darkness again on the way back.


This section of the hike had quite a bit of tree cover and combined with the higher altitude it made for a much cooler trek. After about 2-3 miles in it got cold enough that I decided to put on my wind breaker and gloves and I was glad I did as it would only get cooler from there. Once we reached the intersection from the trail coming from Humber Park to the south side of the mountains from Idlewild, CA we had some more great views.

From here it was on up to the summit. We fully intended to just continue on to the summit and eat a good snack there but a little over a half mile from the summit most of u, including me, were beginning to feel the effects of glycogen depletion and we decided to take a much needed nutrition break. After about a 10 minute break we made out final assault on to the peak. Just before the peak there is a small rock cabin for rangers and hikers to be able to take shelter in from severe weather. Just past the cabin the trail ends and one has to climb a hundred feet or more scrambling over large boulders to reach the summit.

Finally we reached the summit of San Jacinto. While it was a bit cold, thankfully the wind was not blowing badly so we could keep our footing much easier and not get quite as cold as it could have been. Here are some pictures from the top. The two oldest from our group were Warren Johns and me, Russ Barber at the ages of 68 and 60 respectively. I am to the left in the pictures of the two of us. We both figure that we are in about 3:50 marathon shape at the time if that gives you any indication of the shape you need to be in to do this hike successfully without killing yourself.

The trek back down the boulders to the trail can be a bit precarious but it is not to bad as long you you don't hurry. From the trail back to the tram seems to be a very easy trek compared to everything else we had done that day. About half way back Dragana and I left the rest of the group behind and began running back. Shortly we ran into Tito who was waiting at a fork in the trail, not wanting to take the wrong one he had waited for the group to catch up. He had gone ahead earlier. We left our headlamps off until about 6:30pm when we just could not quite make out the trail enough to make sure of our footing. Even with a headlamp the shadows can make for unpredictable results in figuring out the footing of the trail, but we were able to keep a bit of a jog going and when not jogging we were walking quite fast. We made it back to the tram station at about 7pm for a total of about 14.5 hours for the whole ordeal. The others arrived about 10 minutes later and we all gave each other high fives and hugs. It truly was an epic experience. Almost all of the others said they would probably never do it again but were glad they had done it at least once. I suspect they will change their minds in the days to come as the bad parts of the memory fade and mostly good memories remain. We had a bit of a fiasco waiting for a cab that never came setting us back about 60 minutes more than it would have. Next time we will have a car at the parking lot and shuttle back and forth.

Here is a link to my Garmin Connect page where you can view all the stats from the hike: C2C Hike Garmin Connect .

As to the difficulty of this hike, about half of us had done Whitney within the last two years and all felt that this hike was definitely tougher than Whitney. Backpacker magazine considers it to be the 5th toughest day hike in the united states Americas Hardest Day Hikes . All those in our group were runners and capable of running a full marathon.

I definitely suggest that you have a least one person who has done the hike to the tram station with you, as this will greatly help in finding the trail. 

Happy Trail,

Russ

30-Day Fitness Rebound, Final Update

Well I am over two weeks late writing this update to my August 30-Day Fitness Rebound, but here it is! Unfortunately I was not able to do a definitive final run in the same weather conditions etc. because we have had very unusually high temps combined with high humidity, some nights not even getting below 74 degrees. I did have a significant long run at the end of week three that I will attempt to extrapolate from to give you an idea of where I ended up. As you recall I had not run previous to this for 8 full weeks and wanted to test how my fitness would rebound over the 30 days of August. Here is a recap of where I left off beginning with my initial test.

See initial article here: http://runnersmania.blogspot.com/2013/08/30-day-fitness-rebound-begins.html

I ran 6 miles at a 10:43 Avg. pace per mile. My first mile was at a pace of 10:11 and my last mile was at a pace of 11:13. That is about a minute difference. Based on experience I know that these two extremes will get much closer together as I regain my fitness over the next 30 days. I also expect my overall pace to get faster. So I am going to look at 3 metrics for evaluation as to how much fitness I can regain in 30 days.

1. Average Heart Rate: 139.  My goal will be to be within 2 beats of this number, on either side, for my test on August 31.
2. Average pace per mile:  10:43 per mile.
3. First and last mile pace: 10:11 for first mile and 11:13 for the last mile.

Here are my progress stats end of week one:

       1.  Average Heart Rate: 142 Just a hair over my goal. 
       2.  Average Pace Per Mile: 10:06. 
       3.  First and Last Mile Pace: 9:39 for first mile and 10:41 for the last mile.

My average pace per mile improved by 37 seconds, but the difference between first mile time and last mile time stayed exactly the same at 62 seconds.

My next test run was actually a 12-mile run instead of a 6-mile run, but it is the closest run I have in this time frame under nearly the same conditions, at least starting conditions.

Run on August 24 Week Three:

1.      Average Heart Rate: 143 Two beats over my goal but not bad for a 12 mile run.

2.      Average Pace Per Mile: 9:35.

3.      First and last mile pace: 9:27 for the first mile and 8:46 for the last mile.

4.      Approximation of first and last: 9:27 for first mile and 9:46 for mile 9.

My average pace per mile improved by 68 seconds over my initial test run while the difference between first and last mile, based on approximation, was only 11 seconds.

Unfortunately the first and last mile comparisons are not valid as this was an out and back 6 miles each way where as the initial course was out and back ½ mile each way, with each mile being exactly the same terrain. In this last test the first mile was uphill and the last mile was down the same hill. However, mile 9 would approximate the same difficulty of hill the first mile so I used it as an approximation.

As you can see in just 24 days I had a significant improvement from what I had lost. During the 8 weeks of no running. I might add that during week 3 I had to take 4 days off because my left heel was too sore to run.

I believe that these results would have been even better over the same course and only 6 miles but the results speak for themselves. Unfortunately the following week the temperatures climbed and the humidity and dew point soared with dew points reaching into the low 70’s at times and greatly affecting my times, as I was not acclimated to such conditions.

Subsequent to this I ran a very challenging 20-mile run with 2400 feet of continuous elevation gain over 7.3 miles and 3400 feet of elevation loss over 12.7 miles on September 13^th, with an average pace of 9:42 and a PR for me on that course.

I not only regained my previous fitness in less than 30 days after an 8-week break from running but also actually improved on it

Happy Trails,

Russ

30-Day Fitness Rebound Week One Update

It has been a really good week. I was going to wait until tomorrow to report but my body was getting a little tired and I am not sure I will run tomorrow, at least no more than a mile. So far I have run at least one mile 8 days in a row for a total of 32 miles including a 10-mile long run. I am planning on running at least a mile a day through the month of August. In addition I have cycled twice for a total of 47 miles doing a 1-mile run at the end of each ride in 80+-degree temperature. 

So last Friday I set some benchmarks to compare my progress, here is a review: (See post)

I ran 6 miles at a 10:43 Avg. pace per mile. My first mile was at a pace of 10:11 and my last mile was at a pace of 11:13. That is about a minute difference. Based on experience I know that these two extremes will get much closer together as I regain my fitness over the next 30 days. I also expect my overall pace to get faster. So I am going to look at 3 metrics for evaluation as to how much fitness I can regain in 30 days.

1. Average Heart Rate: 139.  My goal will be to be within 2 beats of this number, on either side, for my test on August 31.
2. Average pace per mile:  10:43 per mile.
3. First and last mile pace: 10:11 for first mile and 11:13 for the last mile.

Here are my progress stats end of week one:

       1.  Average Heart Rate: 142 Just a hair over my goal. 
       2.  Average Pace Per Mile: 10:06. 
       3.  First and Last Mile Pace: 9:39 for first mile and 10:41 for the last mile.

My average pace per mile improved by 37 seconds, but the difference between first mile time and last mile time stayed exactly the same at 62 seconds.

Overall I am very happy with my progress and could not really wish for a much better result in just one week. I would like to have seen the difference between my first and last mile be less than the week before but overall I really can’t complain at all. To improve by 37 seconds in one week is a very significant improvement.

So let’s review my goals for August 31. I stated last week that I would like to be back to an average pace of a 9:30 pace per mile under the same conditions or as close as possible to the same conditions. At this point I am already halfway there. Does that mean I can reach my goal in just 2 weeks instead of 4 weeks? Probably not, as I expect my progress next week to be somewhat diminished over this week. I would really be greatly surprised to reach my goal by the end of next week.

Have you ever chronicled a fitness rebound? What kind of gains in fitness did you expect and how did your result measure up against your goals and expectations?

Quite frankly, I would never have guessed that I would be able to knock off 37 seconds in just one week. Part of this is probably do to running at least one mile each day and also doing some cycling on a couple of my easy days. I did not cycle at a particularly hard effort, in fact both rides were fairly easy efforts overall. I ran only one stressful workout and that was the 8 hill-repeats I ran Tuesday night and even that was conservative because I felt my heel tighten up so I did not run the full twelve repeats I had planned.

Let me know about your comeback experiences!

Happy Trails,

Russ