Chris Werner

"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves." Andre Gide (Writer, 1047 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1867-1951)

So I'm in a van with a  multiple Western States 100 mile finisher, 2 x Ironman World Championship Qualifier, his wife, a 7x Ironman, and a high-altitude mountaineer....I have the blessing in life to have found myself in a situation where it's not only during a relay, above 10,000 feet in the Rockies...but each and every day, at work and at play, that I am surrounded by the TRIBE...the most unique, inspiring, and absolutely crazy group of athletes I will ever find....

....were competing in the Colorado Relay, a team relay, 170 miles long, 30 hours non-stop, across the Colorado Rockies, up and over 4 major passes, through Brekenridge, Vail, Aspen, and everything in between.  I didn't just experience the Rockies, I connected, and it was an adventure...I picked up a spot in the van with my group just a few short days before the race...

I've run harder and longer in both training and racing...but that was not what inspired me...the race was difficult, my legs totalling over 26 miles over 30 hours, on very difficult terrain, and I was averaging under 7 minute miles...but the rawness of the experience and connecting with the people, that's what left me inspired!

It's a tribe, a crazy, whacked out tribe...my ultra people, my endurance people, my Ironman, my ultra marathoners, my crazy drop-of-the-hat-yeah-I'll enter-that-race-people.  We follow each others' lives, we grow together, we have our rituals and traditions...and regardless if one of us is going out there alone, or as a group, there is this collective understanding....

Like any tribe, there are the young warriors, yet to earn their stripes, talented, but untested over the long haul....and there are the elders, where wisdom and experience meet inconceivable performance and and level of fitness.  I was locked in a van for 30 hours with a nice collection, although it was more like three elders and a young guy like me! 

Despite the fact that one may be more battle tested than the other...no one person knows what motivates the other...for the motivation is as unique as the individual themself.  Regardless, there is a bond, a thread that is intertwined between the group, and a collective understanding...

...I suppose we're all tapped into something that allows the ego to step aside, even for just that brief period of time....and   transcend....pushing the body not for glory or bragging rights...but for something so much deeper than the average person could possibly understand.  That's a bond that runs through us...it's a tribe in every sense. 

It wasn't until recently that I said, wow, I'm part of this thing, I finally get what these people are all about...my tribe, these are my people!

I wanted to get some of this down, to caputure some of these ideas.  I will post pictures of the relay, it was spectacular...

"We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character."  Henry David Thoreau

It was late Wednesday night when I jumped in my Jeep, top down, the stars scattering across the sky above...I headed out up the coast, inland from Napa, Sonoma County,

to catch up with some friends of mine, one of whom, Adam, had just finished the full Vineman Iron-distance triathlon the previous Saturday.

I was driving 90 minutes North, to Napa...and then to the Mendocino Coast just north...to dive for Abalone on the ocean bottom through the kelp gardens off shore.

Northern California inspires me, it's more than a conscious thought, but a feeling at times when I make these relatively short trips...

...from inland through the mountains, cycling, running, some of the best outdoor terrain,  Adam (left) and Eric (right) prepare for the dive...across plains, through some of the worlds greatest wine country, to the spectacular Nor Cal coast people from all over the world see in post cards, and travel thousands of miles to see...and it's 90 minutes from my door. 

It's is more than just coming to the simple fact that somehow I lucked out, and was able to whether the storm, find where my true passion lies...and then roll the dice and come out here...

Adam...ready for the hunt...

but Northern California...it's paradise...micro climates, spectacular terrain...and there is ALWAYS A NEW ADVENTURE!

Adam (left) and me (right)...defenseless mullusks beware!!!

Open Water,. Free Diving...for Abalone...crawling down rocky ledges, fighting through waves, in desolate coves and open and exposed water off the line of cliffs above...to swim freely through the pacific. 


Marine life abound, the sun illuminating the dense kelp gardens, revealing a scene like something from a National Geographic special...it is awe inspiring.

My friends Adam and Eric, adventuresome ultra-endurance type athletes like myself...ambitious, driven and always looking to find an outlet for energy, passion, creativity...are always ready on a whim to take off and do something like this...Dive for Abalone...etc.

Successful catch (caught out limit, 9, or 3 for each of us)Driving up through Sonoma, we finally made it to Adam's rental house, his parents were kind enough to have me for the week, while they were vacationing post-Vineman Triathlon with Adam.

It was a quick night's sleep and then up the Mendocino Coast to pick up our Abalone Permits (only 3 per day, 24 per year...and they are very strict...these rare sea mollusks fetch prices upwards of $100/lb., they are rare and taste every bit as good as they cost in the open market!!!).  Every abalone must be individually tagged on the beach, and rangers watch from the bluffs to ensure each diver catches 3 and only 3 in any single day.

After finding a hidden, remote trail leading through the rocks to a small outcropping and beach...that would allow us to swim about a Quarter Mile to a kelp garden...we decided to get ready.  Getting into out 7mm+ neoprene dive gear, our knives,

Adam (left) and Eric (right) prepare the catch...then dinner (Abalone really is amazing...tenderize it, then sautee with garlic and olive oil)

abalone irons, measuring gauges (they must be 7"+ to keep), and getting some gear into our rubber tube used to carry our catch...we headed out into the water.

Just a simple overview of the various counties that make up California...the state is so vast it still  me! I reside in Contra Costa County...

Because we are in the Crimson Triangle, cold water filled with predatory sharks, including Great Whites, and filled with their prey, sea lions, there is an initial fear of the unknown....this is where people die, swimming a quarter to half mile off shore in complete isolation...

...but the dear subsides as you begin to swim farther out and finally, as you enter the kelp

 

gardens....you become part of another world.  The lush underwater greenery....it's intense, it's as if you are part of the mighty Pacific...and it's bounty, in the millions of colors, almost tropical in nature...but even more brilliant and rugged, surround you.  Giant fish, octopus, sea lions, and the like are all abound.

Basic map of Northern California (sorry I couldn't find a better map, but at least it gives a layout of the regioHaving found our spot, we dove down, each of us popping our heads up seeing if the other captured an abalone.  The process is not an easy one.  Scuba gear is illegal, free diving only.  Diving down sometimes up to 20 feet or more to the bottom, and then searching for these rock shaped mollusks is not easy.  Once found, they must be quickly pried off with the abalone iron...or bare hands, before they latch firmly onto the rocks below....and then dragged to the surface.

 

A regional map of Sonoma County (including Mendicino). As mentioned, I live in Contra Costa County...and between my training and these 'adventures' I am all over the region at anIt's a primal feeling catching these rather huge creatures, slowly collecting them.  Knowing that they are providing you with sustenance, and knowing it is with your own effort, in interacting with the ocean and it's bounty of life you were provided with this opportunity.

Heading into shore, we realized we were nearly a half-mile off shore.  We swam in, while the waves crashed around us.  I would never look at the Pacific Ocean the same way again....

 

We spent the evening cleaning and preparing the abalone, and Adam's parents cooked it to perfection.  The pure white protein rich, nutrient dense flesh is delicious and filling.  It's was truly an experience.

This adventure marks one of many I have had here on the west coast, in Nor Cal that exemplifies why this small region could not be more fulfilling to live in....the adventures are

 

all around, from a simple run through Redwood forests, to diving off the coast, to climbing through mountains, swimming to Alcatraz, standing above a rocky outcropping and seeing the Golden Gate glistening....it makes me feel alive.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."  Henry David Thoreau, 1854

Ironman Lake Placid 2008...pouring rain...loving every minute of it! Today I began my formal training for Ironman Arizona, with my coach Chris Hauth of Performance Labs/Advanced Ironman Training...it also happens I was asked today why Ironman, and why 3 (or possibly more) a year?  When do I train, why do I put forth the effort?  What keeps me motivated?  Having 5 and closing in on 6 Iron-distance races, and in November...3 in 2008 alone...I can only answer vaguely...

It's where I find "it"...out there, somewhere.  I find "it." 

"It" is hard to describe...but training and racing this distance when I'm way out there, swimming, running, cycling...in the heat, humidity, or the rain and cold...there is a place where I find pause, where there is no before, and no after. 

There is no anticipation of one moment or the next.  I'm in the moment, completely in the moment.  

It's funny, but I was at Border's the other day, looking at a book "High Tech Cycling"...and then flipping through a book by Ram Dass entitled "Paths to God."  From one, I have found my path to the other, through endurance I find grace. 

My meditation, where I feel balanced, where I find grace...is somewhere on the fringe of endurance.  I lived for a number of years far, far from this level of understanding...but the gift of finding a passion, something in life that I do, I live and work for, day-in-and-day-out...that also brings me understanding...that's "it." 

I wish I could summarize "why" in more concrete terms, but instead I can only encourage other's to find such a passion and go for it...for me it's a bit extreme, but it could be anything.  I would never have dreamed of finding myself where I am today...

"I wouldn't Take Nothing From My Journey."  Maya Angelou

The air all week was humid, thunderstoms passed through the deep valleys of the Adirondacks, thunder echoing though the mountain range.  Only the energy of an Ironman race venue in the days preceeding an event could possibly make it add to the electricity all ready in the air. 

As I have done this particular Ironman so many times, we are fortunate to get amazing accomodations year-after-year at the Golden Arrow Hotel on and overlooking Mirror Lake (where the swim takes place...the hotel's beach allows me to swim out to the course to get some taper/ pre race workouts in. 

We are just across the street from the expo, transiiton zone, and finish, which occurs at the 1980 Olympic Speed Skating ring (where Eric Hieden won his series of gold medal and world record setting speed skating races).  Registration is right across the street at the Olympic Ice Rink facility (actually in the adjacent gym of Lake Placid High School), the rink where the US defeated the Soviets in the 1980 Olympic "Miracle on Ice."  The energy of Ironman finds a powerfeul synchronicity with that of the Olympic feel of the village of Lake Placid...1932 and 1980 Olympics, and now going on 10 years with Ironman.

...back to the weather rolling through...race day was overcast, up at 4:00 am, it's obvious that weather may factor in...as I prep for the swim, the rain slowly moves in.

IN the moments before the race begins, the rain comes down...and it will continue to come down, and not relent, for the rest of the day.  It comes down like nothing Ironman has ever seen, all day long, a deluge, no break.  The water is ankle deep in parts...and it dies not relent....

The bike is predictable, and it's a blessing in disguise to have a rain of this magnitude, thus making electrolyte replacement less critical, but calorie consumption plans are thrown off.  Although I have a very fast swim, going about 40 minutes my firtst 1.2 miles, and 25 minutes my 2nd 1.2 miles...the beginning of the bike is always predictable, and as my coach had instructed me...slow down, get the heart rate down to Zone 2, and get some calories in.

It was an test in balanceing my ego, and executing a plan...the bike that is.  My coach wanted to see if I could do it.  Set it aside, let a significant portion of the field I was to compete against pass me, with the understanding that with the amount of calories and pacing routine I was on, I would catch them after mile 61...and I did just this.

The run was brutal.  Off the bike onto the run...awesome.  First 3 miles, fast.  First 8 miles...solid.  Then, the wall.  It was tough.  I knew having taken off 6 weeks following Ironman Arizona to take care of a hamstring injury, and getting a new coach who truly only had 3 weeks to prep me, this was a Hail Mary pass of a race.  Ironman Arizona in Novemer is where I'm expected to show myself...all excuses aside, if the fitness is not there, than it's not going to happen.

Contratulations to some of my teammates, Mark (qualified for Kona), Steve (qualified for Kona). Awesome performances, and Mark, I need to learn everything from someone like this who lives and breathes the ultra endurance lifestyle, and is tough as nails.

It was a fantastic race, I'm going back next year, and I have another step in my journey under my feet, looking forward to the next one, whatever it may hold.

Will elaborate on the title tonight...EPIC day, torrential downpour for the entire day, nuclear meltdown on mile 8 of the run...but like any Ironman...another step along the journey, and a life experience I will not soon forget!