The Hobby Jogger Podcast
Welcome to The Hobby Jogger Podcast, where elite athletes and ham-and-eggers lace up their stories. We explore the common ground that running creates from the world-class runner to the hobbyist hitting the pavement, trail or treadmill. Expect a blend of inspiration, laughter and the shared joy that makes every step count. Join us on this journey, where every run is a story worth sharing.
The Hobby Jogger Podcast
E45 | The Running Pivot: Changing Plans After a DNF with Mike Weinsheimer
The journey of an ultrarunner is rarely a straight line from start to finish. Sometimes, the path takes unexpected turns – as Mike Weinsheimer discovered when facing snowfall and freezing temperatures at the Canyons 100K in California.
But what happens when the race you've trained for slips away? For Mike, the answer was simple yet bold: pivot. Within days, he secured a spot in the iconic Miwok 100K, transforming disappointment into opportunity. Trading snow and freezing rain for sunshine and spectacular coastal views, Mike found himself traversing the beautiful trails of Marin County, from Stinson Beach through redwood forests along Bolinas Ridge.
Mike's resilience and adaptability serve as inspiration for runners at all levels. Whether you're contemplating your first ultra or your fiftieth, there's something powerful to learn from someone who can turn a DNF into a triumph just seven days later.
Thank you for joining us for this week's episode of the Hobby Jogger. I am once again joined by my co-host, Mr Rob Myers. Rob, how are you doing this evening?
Roby Myers:I'm doing well. Yeah, I'm down in beautiful sunny Dallas Texas for work and, yeah, it's a beautiful day sitting in the hotel.
Casey Koza:Least favorite airport ever, dallas. You got to ride the little cart around a little horseshoe. Sometimes it goes your way. It's basically like playing airplane roulette. I don't like it. I try and fly through denver when I go out west. But what can you do my move? Yeah, very smart. Well, rob, this week's guest, we are joined by one of our friends, mr michael weisenheimer. Mike, how, how are you welcome to the show?
Mike Weinsheimer:I'm doing pretty well. I appreciate you guys having me. I do have to do a name correction though it's Weinsheimer Weinsheimer.
Casey Koza:Hold on yeah.
Roby Myers:Let me correct that. That's happened like 17 times, so don't feel bad, mike.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah it happens every day.
Casey Koza:I don't know why I said yeah. I guess that yeah, it's definitely. I just yeah, that's bad. I'm a yinzer, you know we pronounce things wrong all the time.
Roby Myers:So part of I was referring to Casey's pronunciation. Right, we've had quite a few guests. Their names were said with great confidence and it happened to be wrong, so no-transcript.
Mike Weinsheimer:Oh, again, I appreciate the opportunity.
Casey Koza:I always love talking shop. Yeah, yeah, anytime you get stuck running and and, and I feel like you have a pretty unique story. You know, anytime in running, whether it's a 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon- 50 K and above, things have a tendency to go wrong.
Mike Weinsheimer:Correct Always. Well, there's always the possibility. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know if I'd say tendency, but there's a possibility, absolutely. Things can go sideways.
Casey Koza:Yeah, About 80% of the time things go wrong. I would say my experience. How about you, Rob?
Roby Myers:Yeah, I'd say 80, 90%. I think there's very few things in life that you start out, whatever the activity is, with great confidence and then the opposite happens, where you have the lowest experience you've ever had and then the confidence comes back up and the yo-yo effect continues. I can't think of anything else that is like that over a long period of time.
Casey Koza:I mean just in life in general. It's more of how you recover from the things that go wrong and a hundred percent and deal with those and become better and take advantage of situations that you have. And and Mike, you had a very, uh, unique situation that that happened to you. You were signed up for the canyons 100 K. You, you ran in the canyons 100K. You did not run 100K and you got what we dubbed the pivot correct.
Mike Weinsheimer:That is, yeah, that's the title of this Strava file, with an interesting subtitle to follow. But yeah, I'm calling it a pivot. This was my first stab at 100K, so I was stepping up in distance. I've only been at this running thing for five years or so, you know, so my history in the sport is, I guess, relatively short. I started it at age 45, now 50, plugging away as best I can. Canyons was to be my first stab at that distance. Way as best I can. Canyons was to be my first stab at that distance.
Mike Weinsheimer:You know, I think we all have our preferences, strengths, weaknesses, you know, mine being I'm fairly durable and I also perform fairly well in warm conditions, not so well in cold conditions. When you sign up for a Canyons, you're thinking well, I'm signing up for a warm weather race might start cool. But you know, and so that was obviously what I had trained for, you know, a good deal of heat training involved and and whatnot. And as we're getting closer to the race, you could see the weather. The trajectory wasn't. It wasn't on that trajectory. It was going to be cool and ended up being quite cold yeah, that was that was.
Casey Koza:And rob, you ran the 50k as well and it was not what I expected I. I wanted a hot race because I I'd much prefer to run in the hot weather than cold and rain that we had, which was it was. Basically we took the Ohio weather, transported it out to sunny, beautiful California, minus the mud. There was no mud on that course I. What I thought was mud. Yeah, big change in weather, big change in how we train. Mike Cause you said you were, you know, training for the heat. Did you do a lot of sauna?
Mike Weinsheimer:I did some sauna and I'm not sure, frankly, that I, my training would have been all that different, you know, because I try to stay heat acclimated, at least to some extent all of the time, you know, as I traveled a race, and oftentimes that may be at altitude, so the heat training can help in that regard as well, in terms of blood plasma volume and so forth. But yeah, I think it was more just from a mental preparation standpoint. Right, I was just expecting to run in a warm weather race. I think another big factor for me personally, when you speak of you know, strengths, weaknesses, limitations is that you know I have the Raynaud syndrome. Explain real quick what that is. It's a circulatory thing, you know, and I can't really speak to it from a causal standpoint, but I can certainly speak to it from a symptomatic standpoint and when I bring it up to people and I say, oh, raynaud, they're like oh, me too, right, like I can't feel my hands when it's cold, you know. So I do think there's certainly a spectrum on which I am, I would say, on the extreme end. I mean, if it's sub 55 degrees Fahrenheit, yeah, you're likely going to see me out there running with gloves on, if not mittens, and so it's just something I have to deal with. After, say, 45 to 60 minutes, my hands just start to lose feeling and every bit as much lose dexterity, and that that, of course, can be quite hurtful when it comes to executing long trail races. You have to be able to tear open gels, you have to be able to take a caps off of uh you know water bottles and so forth, and you just you have to have that dexterity, so that in and of itself creates a big challenge.
Mike Weinsheimer:When I saw the forecast, I brought two pairs of gloves with me. I had a lightweight merino wool glove and then an over mitt like a waterproof black diamond over mitt. That I thought would be substantial enough. This race starts out 5,000 feet elevation. First of all, for those who don't know, canyons is a point-to-point race. It starts, like I said, at 5,000 feet elevation north of Auburn, kind of downhill, again point-to-point, ending in downtown Auburn. And, by the way, it starts at the China Wall Trailhead in the Tahoe National Forest, follows part of the Western States course, but not to any exactitude.
Casey Koza:Yeah, and one thing I would like to point out if you look at the course on just the topography of the website, maybe it's my computer that it shows up, maybe not as severe as it is, but there is a lot of elevation, gain and loss and, like Mike said, you do start out it's point to point you start out pretty high, so cold weather if it's cold at the bottom it's gonna be real cold at the top, right Mike.
Mike Weinsheimer:Absolutely, I mean. So the forecasted highs at the finish were in the low 50s with persistent rain all day. But up high it was. You know we're talking just with the inherent difficulty of running in the dark headlamp, and then you have the precip coming down in snow form. So they shuttle everybody from Auburn up to China Wall Trailhead to start this race. That whole process begins at like two o'clock in the morning. You're up, you're driving to the shuttle pickup and then you're 45 minutes on a shuttle bus up to the trailhead. Turns out one of the shuttle buses with a group of runners actually broke down on the way up there. That delayed the race start by 10 minutes doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're kind of standing there you know like it was one of the reasons I didn't run that race was because of I don't know.
Casey Koza:I just want to be dropped off at the start and say go like I. I want to roll in two minutes before the thing starts, walk out to the start line and go like it's. Yeah, that's tough, I don't know. Like riding the shuttle bus, I get car sick. I know I sound like a baby rob, I know. Fortunately it wasn't a very windy road riding the shuttle bus, I get car sick.
Mike Weinsheimer:I know I sound like a baby Rob, I know. Fortunately it wasn't a very windy road, but you know it was a straight shot up there. But I mean it's still a 45 minute drive and it just kind of lengthens the day, you know. So I probably could have chosen an easier first 100k.
Casey Koza:So you get up there and it's snowing at the start, right easier.
Mike Weinsheimer:First, 100k. So you get up there and it's snowing at the start, right, snowing at the start, yeah, and you know again, everybody kind of was equipped to deal with cold or heat differently. I mean, I saw, you know, some of the elites were in tank tops with gloves on right, but in tank tops nonetheless, you know. Others, you know, were pretty well bundled up. I thought I had what I needed with me. I had the cold weather kit, everything that was mandatory I had, and some the strategy at least was to try to keep my core warm. That would hopefully extend to the extremities and gun goes off 5, 10 am.
Mike Weinsheimer:Start Out of the gates we go, you know, first, eight miles of the race are like a pretty steady downhill, ideal conditions, quite runnable. But everyone was kind of taking that with caution. From what I could tell, and you know I'm a mid-pack runner, so obviously the folks that were fast enough got out in front and could do what they wanted. But it was a conga line and probably for the better. It probably kept a lot of runners in check, to be honest, because yeah, it got slick out there and yeah, I mean by Ohio standards it wasn't muddy, you know that shooting type of mud. Right, but it was that kind of slick. I don't know if you've dealt with any mud like in on the Hawaiian islands, but I'd almost compare it to that it was. You know that soil there in Northern California is very clay like and when it gets wet it's slick, it's like ice like and, yeah, people were taking spills. So, yeah, that it. It was treacherous.
Casey Koza:Yeah, I saw a couple wipeouts during the 50k. Yeah, it was. It was a little bit slippery. It's like, yeah, it's not shoe eating mud that we have out here, but just, yeah, it was slippery because it's and I don't know the science behind it, but it's trails that are used often and then they get there every now and then rain and it seems to become slick on top. I don't know, rob, do you know how that works?
Roby Myers:Well, we had a little bit of that. Black Canyons at the start. Yeah, at the first like four miles there was ice everywhere. The mud was frozen, it was super slick. It can definitely relate. It also kind of sounds like the Mo Marathon a little bit. Every once in a while you get that freeze in the morning, yeah, beginning of the mow, and there's ice everywhere. You're sliding all over the place. So it's nasty when you have to wait, you know, sometimes hours for it to warm up or the elevation to change the terrain to change.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, it's brutal. I will say, Casey, like from a just from a pure running standpoint, I wasn't the least bit bothered. I'll be honest with you, I really wasn't.
Casey Koza:I was moving well, there were no turned ankles, there were no slips, there were no trips. I was running cautiously and pretty comfortably. Frankly, those trails, it's like I told friend of the show will that it's like our tow path with some elevation on it. Most of the trails that we run out like that, we ran out there, like it's there's some ups and downs, but it's I, I don't know, I don't know, rob, I thought it was pretty smooth, like yeah, I don't know, it's the tow path I mean, you know, definitely closer to that maybe, but definitely not the tow path but if, if I just say between towpath and like laurel highlands, it's much closer to the towpath than it was laurel highlands, okay, that's fair.
Casey Koza:That's fair, I think.
Mike Weinsheimer:But I don't know, I'm not an expert, I don't know, I'm a hobby jogger now I would argue that, up high again, on the, you know, the front end of the 100k course, I would venture to say it's probably closer to Laurel and, from a technicality standpoint, closer to Laurel Highlands than it is to Topek. I mean, it wasn't smooth sailing, of course, but it was.
Roby Myers:Can we agree maybe on the Plateau Trail?
Casey Koza:We'll agree on Plateau Trail. It's pretty rooty pretty rocky. Good trail, by the way, always Great trail, it's my favorite. Yeah, four seasons Always good, so I recommend running it. But so, mike, you get in and you're going first eight miles downhill. What happens after that?
Mike Weinsheimer:Okay, so you get to the river. At that point You've done eight downhill miles and you're feeling pretty decent, weather aside, right, but at that point I had a nice lather going on. As far as sweat was concerned I'm a heavy sweater, by the way, I've been sweat tested at, you know, moderate intensity, 70 degrees. I'm sweating out two liters per hour right After these eight miles. You know, even in those conditions I'm sweating out two liters per hour right After these eight miles. Even in those conditions I'm purely saturated. So the question becomes at that point what do you do with your layers? Someone like me? To be honest, I'm sort of damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't. In that regard, if I keep the layers on, I'm staying saturated, I'm staying wet and I'm getting cold. Right. If I take the layers off, I'm getting cold, you know. And then I run the risk of, like I said, losing core heat. That then is going to extend out to my extremities. The Raynaud's really kicks into effect at that point and your hands just you lose them.
Mike Weinsheimer:I had a judgment call to make you get to that eight-mile point, it's time to start climbing up. At that point you got about a 1,500-foot climb up to what you eventually arrive at mile 10.5, 11-ish, to the first aid station, deadwood 1. Made that climb and I opted to shed the layers. That's what I opted to do. So I'm running in at that point a t-shirt, a pack and two pairs of gloves. But yeah, what happens when you start to climb right?
Mike Weinsheimer:I had descended to about 3,500 feet right, and then it was time to climb again. And so then you're coming back up to 5,000 feet and when I by the time I reached that altitude again, it had cooled back down and I'm reaching for my layers, like okay, it's time to put these back on. Arrive at the aid station and some quick processing to do. You know, I had to do a pretty solid evaluation at that point. I had completely lost all dexterity in my hands at that point, couldn't tear open a gel, Couldn't even take my own pack off to take my layers out of the pack and put them back on. I required aid station assistance.
Roby Myers:Yeah, that's not good. That's what they're there for.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, right's not good. That's what they're there for. Yeah, right, right.
Casey Koza:And shout out to those volunteers that help with that sort of stuff when someone's in a bad way.
Mike Weinsheimer:They were awesome.
Casey Koza:Yeah, they do a great job. Not to be, you know, remiss of speaking of them, because they do. They were awesome out there. Every single one I encountered was great. So, yeah, that's awesome. They helped you get the pack off. Yeah, volunteers.
Mike Weinsheimer:I encountered was great. So, yeah, that's, that's awesome. They, they, they helped you get the pack off. Yeah, volunteers everywhere are great, right. But in particular, I've had a great experience at UTMB races. I really feel like they're well-organized and and and the folks that volunteer for them are pretty well vested. And, yeah, I had an extremely positive experience at that aid station.
Mike Weinsheimer:And so I arrive and, not surprisingly, there's a ton of carnage. At that first aid station there were numerous drops or people in the process of doing so, mostly due to injury, mostly due to falls. I had a point blank view at a woman in the tent next to me with what appeared to be a broken ankle. It was pretty nasty, yeah, and so, as miserable as I felt, I'm looking around and I'm like, yeah, I'm very fortunate at this moment to just be enduring discomfort, basically.
Mike Weinsheimer:But I'm fairly calculated in my approach and I knew that, you know, I had a long day ahead of me and that there was, from a weather standpoint, literally not going to be much light at the end of that tunnel, the degree to which I could have functioned with those hands, even reaching lower elevations, you know, say, by the time I reached the 50 K uh mark at forest Hill and it warmed up into the fifties. I maybe would have seen some relief, but I, I did. I made a calculated decision at that point, at that first aid station, at only mile 11, to drop the race.
Casey Koza:That's tough to do Like you, you went all that way and you got to put your priorities in order. I guess, right, that's that's what you did. Like you, you went all that way and you got to put your priorities in order. I guess, right, that's that's what you did. You said you're calculated. You got to put your priorities in order and kind of make that judgment call, right.
Mike Weinsheimer:Absolutely. I mean for me in terms of overall concerns or I guess longevity tops all right. I'm trying to at age 50, optimize for the long haul as far as aging is concerned, and that, for me, trumps everything. I wasn't injured at that point, but I knew that things could quickly go south if my head just wasn't in the game. I mean, when you're not able to fuel, things can very quickly go sideways, and my fear was that I was going to lose focus, perhaps be one of the folks that did take a fall and then have injury to contend with.
Casey Koza:The weather that day certainly didn't get any better. The lower you went, it was still cold and rainy. Down at the bottom where we were running the 50k in that loop driver's flat, I don't know. I don't know what else. It was called, rob, you might remember, but the weather never got better. Like I was actually a little bit chilly during the 50k, and that's at what?
Roby Myers:1500 feet, I think not, maybe, yeah, not much more. It was just cold and nasty the whole time, which is crazy because the year before I ran canyons 50k I think it got up to like 81, like 79, 81 it was. It was too hot. Sun was up the whole time just dumping sweat, refilling the pack constantly. Polar opposite, this past year I don't mike.
Casey Koza:well, obviously you, you know, with your condition, you think the cold and you prefer the heat, like I do. Rob, what do you prefer? Cold, you prefer cold. See, I like it warm. I think I haven't done well in the cold. I don't know. Well, it depends on how cold. Yeah, I would not have been happy with that. You sweat, then you take the layers off, but you're still wet and you're still cold.
Roby Myers:You can't ever find that I can be hot and be okay If it's that cold and it's a fast race, I'm okay with that. But if it's slow and a lot of people single track, they're not moving very fast, either because the terrain is super technical or just the number of people, that's where it sucks, yeah. But if it's like a road race, like a you know, half marathon road race, it can be in the 20s and I'm I'm fine because you can just book it and your core temperature at least for myself heats up to to a degree that I'm fine with it. But if it's a slow race and it's cold 30s, low 40s no, that's too cold for me.
Casey Koza:Yeah. So like I didn't envy you at all up there, like I was pretty cold down there, especially the wake-up time, and yeah, it was a rough day for you, but sometimes you have to make a pivot in life right, sometimes that's the case, yeah, and of course, you know, what was next was not exactly on the mind at that, at that moment, at that aid station, right, I mean, of course, I was in a self-preservation mode.
Mike Weinsheimer:Right, again, the avoidance of injury, the avoidance of severe discomfort. You know, again, I'm no stranger to discomfort. I can't think of many ultra runners who are right. I've run some races in some pretty nasty weather. Example given 2021, burning River torrential downpour. 2023, burning River, 50 miler again, torrential downpour. Right, but it is, you find yourself in these. But it is, you find yourself in these. Each situation is unique. I wasn't exactly in my backyard, yeah, it use the term extracted the drops and it was nice because I was in a van. People that could certainly empathize, one of which was an elite female runner who I'll go nameless here.
Casey Koza:But oh, drop names, Mike. That's what we like to do. No, no.
Roby Myers:I'm not going to do that we haven't had a button, Mike we haven't had a button.
Casey Koza:Yeah, so anyway, this unnamed runner who we don't know who she is, she's on the bus with you. The crews are back to the start line. I guess they're taking you to the finish line, right, taking us to the finish line.
Mike Weinsheimer:That's where the group voted to go.
Casey Koza:Yeah, it was back to the finish line.
Mike Weinsheimer:We had some options. Yeah Right, forest Hill was one of those options were like no, let's just just go back to the finish. That's where the food is.
Casey Koza:That's the food and beer are get us there, right.
Mike Weinsheimer:Right. So yeah, it was, it was. It was nice to kind of be able to you know, to be I wasn't in that in that van alone, van alone. That felt, I guess, comforting to a degree. I mean, there there were some, like I said, some some injuries there, but certainly others who who dropped for the same reasons or similar reasons that I did.
Casey Koza:and yeah, yeah, you go out looking for a hot weather race and it's a winter snowstorm. I mean I, I get it. So I mean it would have been tough, it would have been tough, it would have been tough for me not to that, seeing that weather dropped to the 50 K, if I was signed up for the a hundred K and ready for it, it would have been tough for me to to run a hundred K in that for sure. Yeah, you know you live and you learn and you learned and you, you get back to the start finish line, where I was. I unfortunately saw you as I as I crossed oh, yeah, cause it's disappointing. You know, I knew you were running a hundred K and obviously you weren't running the hundred K anymore. So I saw you as I came across the finish line and you know what happened then the real reason I dropped was to see you finish.
Casey Koza:Well, I figured I didn't want to.
Mike Weinsheimer:I didn't want to say that, but I I imagined, uh no, that was nice, but um, yeah. So I mean, obviously you're standing there at the finish line, you're watching runners come in and what's interesting is, like you know, I was able to go back to our airbnb and shower and, kind of you know, some time went by, right, I'm fast forwarding a bit here, but it seemed like just moments after I got back to the finish line, francesco Pupi was crossing the finish line, winning the 100K race, setting a course record, running in those conditions, which proves that obviously certain conditions favor certain folks who are able to excel in those conditions.
Casey Koza:Yeah, that's good conditions for the Euros. I feel like that's prime conditions for those conditions. Yeah, that's that's good conditions for the euros. I feel like that is that's prime conditions for those guys. Yeah.
Mike Weinsheimer:But of course I'm standing there and the wheels are turning right Like what's next, because I, I was fit to run a hundred K, you know, and and that's what I, you know I came out to Northern California to do Bulb went on. I have a friend who lives in the Bay Area who I knew was running the Miwok 100K, also a Western States qualifier, a very storied race. It's been around a long time. The David Gogginses have run that race. It's got a lot of history. Knowing that that race was taking place but also knowing that it was pretty much full, it was a quick thought but it ultimately ended up being the direction of my pivot. I was able to secure a spot sort of last minute wait list kind of thing and the weather for that race was the polar opposite right. It was the antithesis of the canyons situation. It was an absolutely ideal day. That's the direction I ended up going.
Casey Koza:Yeah, a little bit nicer weather down there in the Bay Area, beautiful area.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, for those not familiar, that race starts and finishes in Stinson Beach. It's mostly run on coastal trail, the vast majority of which is single track. That area is, of course, not mountainous, but it is quite hilly, you know. From a profile standpoint, you know that course is quite similar to canyons, actually, in terms of having approximately the same amount of vert, just shy of 12,000 feet of vert, mostly non-technical. It's a race that I had trained to run. I thought, well, if I can squeeze into it which I was fortunately able to do I felt like I could give it a good run.
Casey Koza:You did, and that's a tough decision to make. You drop one and did you make? Maybe you did. I'd like to think you did. Did you make the decision when we were at the bar drinking beer? By any chance?
Mike Weinsheimer:I'll be honest, I can't exactly remember when exactly that may have been it. The beer may have something to do with the fact that I can't remember exactly the beer and casey helped make the decision right.
Roby Myers:Yeah, we all agree, I'm always good for bad advice.
Mike Weinsheimer:Add a little alcohol in and you know, now it's good advice you know, we'll just, yeah, we'll say the beers kind of solidified, the the decision to make the pivot yeah, but uh.
Mike Weinsheimer:But no, it was exciting and I was fortunate, very, very fortunate, in the sense that not only was I able to secure a spot, but I was I have, you know, that friend in the Bay Area that I mentioned who was running that race so to kind of be able to go out there and stay with him. It made it possible from a logistical standpoint.
Roby Myers:Does that race go through Sausalito?
Mike Weinsheimer:I believe it does.
Casey Koza:It's real close if it doesn't.
Mike Weinsheimer:Okay, yeah, it goes down by Golden Gate Bridge, through Sausalito, through the Mount Tam watershed, along the Bolinas Ridge, which you know takes you through Redwoods, which is gorgeous. I had a fellow runner tell me he's like look, if you want to see Redwoods, you come to Bolinas Ridge. I never knew that. It was a beautiful area. Certainly a very fruitful game as far as visual stimulation was concerned. As far as visual stimulation was concerned, right Now I'm not throwing shade on the Canyon's course, but in those conditions, let's be honest, it was foggy and there wasn't a ton to see, right, but I had a perfectly sunny day to work with at Miwok and it was just picture perfect, gorgeous.
Roby Myers:Yeah, it was on ultra sign up. It looked like you did pretty well in the race.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, I mean for being my first 100k, I felt like I held my own, especially, let's be honest. I mean we live in ohio, right, and so we can't train. You know on on courses like that with the big ups and big downs, and you know you just try to simulate that as best you can here locally, fairly solidly, a mid-pack runner here in Ohio, I oftentimes will travel out west to race and find myself barely in the mid-pack right, sometimes in the back of the pack. So I feel like you know, coming into this race season, I had made some fitness gains that were going to make me more competitive, and that proved to be the case. Gains that were going to make me more competitive, and that proved to be the case. I think there were 50 starters, exactly 50 starters in the 50 to 59 age group, only 31 of which finished the race and I placed nine out of those 31.
Roby Myers:So that's pretty damn good, right there.
Mike Weinsheimer:Hell yeah, I feel pretty decent about it.
Casey Koza:It is different runners out there. I was telling, well, and jeremy, because I finished about the same, I guess, utmb index score that I I have out here, but these guys and women, there was no walking hills, like we were. Every hill we came to we were just, we were just pounding every hill and it's just mile 20. We're still. Like these guys are still running up hills and it's like holy shit, like this doesn't they don't do that out east. We're walking this thing for sure out east. Power hike, power hike. Oh, power hike. Yeah, I forgot power hike. Yeah, we're power hiking out here. So, yeah, it's a whole different level of runner out there, wouldn't you say Mike.
Mike Weinsheimer:Very much agreed. 100%, yeah, I mean. Not only I mean the fields are more fit, yes for sure, but at the same time they're also deeper, I feel like, particularly in a race like Miwok. To be honest, a race that has it has a 15 and a half hour cutoff and pretty tight cutoffs at the aid stations throughout, okay, versus a UTMB race. Which credit to UTMB? I mean, they promote inclusion and you know a 20-hour cutoff on a Canyon's 100K is intended to do that, right, yeah, it's intended to help the first-time 100K runner that has to zombie walk to the finish, right?
Mike Weinsheimer:Miwok is no such animal, uh, that that it doesn't even pretend to be that, and they promote it as such. Like, hey, we're getting in and out, we're doing it, we're getting it out. Our permits require that. That's yeah, that's a big part of it. Their permits require that they be wrapped up in that time frame. Fortunately, I stayed ahead of those cutoffs and, like I said, you know I feel like I ran a pretty solid race. Nutrition was pretty well dialed, hydration was dialed from an execution standpoint, it, it, it went as planned.
Casey Koza:A little bit easier when the weather's nice. I guess you know it's sunny and warm.
Casey Koza:Birds are chirping and things like that. So you get to the start line. What was your confidence level like? That was my biggest question with this is you just had a DNF Canyons and that, no matter why you DNF, I feel like you didn't achieve your goal. It probably has to sting a little bit. Hey, I didn't do what I set out to do, so that hurts. You turn right around the next week. Come back for Miwok. Did you have any doubts when you were standing on the start line or were you like I did the work, the haze in the barn, so to speak? Let's just see what we can do.
Mike Weinsheimer:Anyone who hasn't finished a race of the distance they're attempting right. There's got to be a little bit of doubt there, right Inherently, and I think that's the extent to which I was feeling it. To be honest with you, I was confident in my fitness and I knew that I was primed to run that course, handle that vert, deal with it, you know, in what turned out to be ideal weather conditions. Frankly, I will reveal the subtitle to my Strava post on this now, which was simply this it was, you know, the reason I DNF'd the canyons was that I didn't want to freeze my ass off all day, and that was not at all an issue at Miwok a week later. So my confidence was actually pretty high and, yeah, so I feel like I was able to execute without much hindrance in that regard.
Roby Myers:Good, I'm glad to hear that story.
Casey Koza:Yeah, cause I, I do. I mean, there's a lot of people I think that would have had a big confidence shot, you know, coming back the next week after they, you know, didn't didn't complete the goal that they wanted to, and that's that takes a lot of resilience to do and just to stand there. Hey, you know why you did it. It wasn't like you got to mile 30 and just fell apart and all the gaskets blew off. Yeah, I, you know, I was cold and I couldn't use my hands. And here I am today and it's nice weather, sun shining, things are going my way.
Mike Weinsheimer:Let's go Right. Exactly that. That. That said, in a nutshell, I the dnf didn't happen because I I wasn't fit enough to cover that distance or to handle the handle the course it. It was almost purely conditions related and yeah, so I was able to go into me walk feeling pretty confident. I think it also helped that I had run, you know, the big Alta course out there six weeks prior right there in Marin County, and so I, just from a terrain standpoint, I knew exactly what I was up against. So that helped as well.
Casey Koza:Yeah, that always helps being familiar with the I guess, local type of type of trail. What what you're going to do type of type of trail.
Mike Weinsheimer:what what you're going to do is this what was the furthest you had run up until me? Walk 350 milers um burning river, 50 on two occasions, 2021, 2023. And then I ran the mohican 50 miler, uh, last summer, june of 2024 both pretty tough.
Casey Koza:It can be extremely hot for both of those races, right.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, they were both. Yeah, of course. I mean, I mentioned the torrential downpours of the two years at Burning River, but nevertheless, it was what? 70 plus degrees? Right, there were. No, there was no loss of dexterity in the hands. You know it was, those were warm weather races, no question.
Casey Koza:And it gets up to 80 with 100 humidity and could barely breathe. So, yeah, tough, those are tough conditions.
Mike Weinsheimer:So you, you had some experience going into the longer distances before this right yeah, yeah, and you know they say you can run a 50 mile or you can run 100k's. Uh it, it wasn't a huge leap. I think perhaps the the the biggest challenge was, you know, handling the vert. You know where a course like like a Mohican, for instance, which is about as hilly as they come here in Northeast Ohio, right, you know that that course, the 50 miler, has like sixty five hundred feet of vert, which is like half of what you're faced with at a me walk or a canyons, right, yeah Well, we, we had just Brazil on and she made a pretty good point that it is tough to run out here because it's just it's so undulating, because it's just it's so undulating You're going straight up but then straight down you just never.
Casey Koza:She was of the mindset I think that I can climb for two miles, that's fine. I'm in my climbing mode, where she has to switch modes every. I guess we do get good training out here, right, mike? Right Rob.
Roby Myers:Yeah, I think so. I mean CBMP is a gift, it's a secret. I think when people experience it they're like, okay, I get it.
Casey Koza:It's not easy running here it's not buttery smooth trails. There's roots, there's rocks, there's turns. We have a lot of turns. Turns are slow, I found out.
Mike Weinsheimer:I would have to agree, casey. Yeah, I appreciate that. No, I do. I'm not trying to sell this area short with regard to its difficulties. It's certainly some hard trail running here in its own right, but I feel like it is void of the big climbs and the big descents though. Whether you choose to simulate those on a treadmill or whatever means you may employ, I've run my share of hill repeats on the local Dogwood Hill.
Casey Koza:Yeah, we got Dogwood. We always have Dogwood.
Mike Weinsheimer:That we do.
Casey Koza:Which hey, tough trail to run out there. But anyway, I'm sorry, back to Miwok. So you get about. Let's start at the halfway point of Miwok. Take us through that. You're ahead of the cutoff at the halfway point because I was following along. You were ahead by a decent bit, right?
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, yeah, I was well ahead of the cutoffs throughout the day and that felt good. I mean, that gives you even more confidence. Your confidence actually builds throughout the day, right? Because frankly the cutoff of 15 and a half hours was give or take kind of like what I was kind of my target finish time for canyons right.
Mike Weinsheimer:Yeah, if it were a warm weather race, right, if you had the warm weather to contend with, that was going to be like a 15, 16 hour deal for me, right, yeah. So, yeah, you know, to be able to, I think I finished me walking like 1351. So you know I was again, I was well ahead of those cutoffs throughout the day and, fortunate in that regard, I felt, felt good about the fact that. You know I think I turned an ankle once you know it was. You know it wasn't really a problematic situation recovered from it pretty well Again, nutrition was dialed. You know I'm fueling with 90 grams of carbs and that seems to be like the fit for me.
Casey Koza:Well, you're not doing the 200 an hour.
Mike Weinsheimer:No, I haven't quite climbed to that, that level yet.
Casey Koza:But not sure my intestines can handle that.
Mike Weinsheimer:The 90 seems to work for me and I think for me too, the key is just taking it in every 20 minutes. So back to your question regarding where I stood at the halfway point. Like I said, felt pretty good at the halfway point. Like I said, felt pretty good at the halfway point for me. You know, let's be honest, all races have highs and lows. Right where, where did the real low come? You know, um, I think, um, there's an out and back section, basically the ends the race.
Mike Weinsheimer:You're going out on the Bolinas Ridge, gosh, I'll be honest, the aid station name, the final aid station name, is escaping me at the moment. I apologize, but and then you're, you're just coming all the way back to Stinson Beach on the Bolinas Ridge and it's at that final aids. It is actually not the final aid station, it's the 39, uh, 49 mile aid station. It's the 49-mile aid station. 49-mile aid station is where you can pick up a pacer. Okay, and for good reason, You've done most of the climbing at that point because the course is kind of front-loaded. In that regard, the trip along Bolinas Ridge is relatively flat, just undulating. But you're pretty well spent at that point, at least most people are. I can certainly see the appeal in having a pacer from that point.
Mike Weinsheimer:I did not. Obviously it wasn't part of my plan. I didn't uh arrange for that. Uh, to each their own, of course I I doubt that I'll ever run a race with a pacer. I'm kind of more of the European mindset in that regard. I feel like races should be your own, and that's again. I don't want to offend or take anything away from those who employ that method. It's certainly within the race rules.
Casey Koza:Oh I don't mind, I'm with you. So I don't think that if you're trying to be like 1 through 10, I don't think you should be allowed to have a pacer. To me it's not a team sport, it's your own. You're competing against others. You need to still be with it mentally and physically. You can't have guidance in either. You can have the coaching at the aid stations, that's fine, but I don't think you should get a run along coach with you late in a race when it matters pacing matters. You know people doing whatever I so I'm with you.
Roby Myers:Mike, I not going to have any pacers but that's a whole other second that you got to suffer alone. Right, yeah, yeah.
Mike Weinsheimer:That's where I other I second that you got to suffer alone, right yeah?
Casey Koza:Yeah, that's where I stand. Yeah, so you texted me after Mike not doing another 100K. Have you changed your mind yet? Yeah, I changed my mind like two days later.
Mike Weinsheimer:Sounds about right. Certainly the spur of the moment thing there is yeah, I'm never doing this again. Right, that's what type two fun is all about. Right, like it's miserable in the moment but you look back on the. You know it's a lot of fun to look back on you know, so what'd you sign up for?
Mike Weinsheimer:There's more races on the calendar this year. Uh, next one coming up is the thin melanson's resurrected race, the twisted fork 68k park city, utah. That's coming up here in just three weeks, uh, june 14th, I believe. Okay, and then we're going back out. I say we, that includes wife, who also does these things. We're going back out to Utah at the end of July to run Speed Goat 28K, which is, I would argue, the hardest 28K in North America.
Casey Koza:Yes.
Mike Weinsheimer:Kicked the hell out of me two years ago and I'm going back for redemption. I feel like I can improve substantially upon the debacle, uh, that I experienced there a couple years ago. Then we've got uh grindstone 50k coming up. Uh, that'll be sort of a tune-up for then uh the kodiak 100k back out to California in mid-October.
Casey Koza:Nice, nice, nice little schedule here.
Mike Weinsheimer:A little bit of traveling, for sure. Yeah, dual income, no kids. What can?
Casey Koza:I say Dinks, I can appreciate that, mike, that's it in a nutshell Yep, mike, we certainly appreciate you telling us the story Awesome story, and I think there's a lot to learn from it. That, hey, today's not your day, but next Saturday at 5.30 AM sure might be right.
Mike Weinsheimer:Absolutely. I guess there's an overarching message that I would put forth and it would just be go into each event just knowing as much about yourself as you can and if you do that, your, whatever decision you make, whether it be to power through uh, you know adversity, or you know, to drop a race at mile 11 of 62, right, if you know yourself well, you'll make the prudent decision.