For the 4th time, I traveled to the Lake Tahoe area and ran in the Tahoe Rim Trail 100. This race keeps drawing me back to it because of its beauty, challenge, and single track trails. The course runs up along the ridges on the east portion of the lake above Incline Village. This year they added a new challenging twist. The course needed to be altered because of a permit problem, so we were able to run on new trails for the race, including a brutal climb straight up a ski resort run.
The Bighorn 100-mile Trail Run is billed as being wild and scenic. The scenic part is well understood, with its vistas, meadows, wildflowers, and rivers. The wild part is harder to explain because every year I have run the race, the course conditions have been wild in different ways with its heat, cold, mud, snow and swamps. The unpredictability of the race is a masochist draw to me. I returned to face the course for the 5th year in row.
Last year, the course ate me up, spit me out in a heap, and I mentally quit the race twice before changing my mind. I limped into the finish in 33:21. This year I had determined revenge against the course. I knew better than to boast, for fear the course would lash out and humble me, but I wanted to respect and conquer it this year. My mistakes last year were using poorly fitting shoes and becoming badly dehydrated twice. I solved the shoe problem and I vowed to not become dehydrated this year.
I ran in the Ogden Marathon, held in Ogden, Utah. It is a nice, mostly downhill, fast course that winds down Ogden canyon. It starts at 5,400 feet and ends in downtown Ogden at 4,300 feet. After my good Boston race, I had lofty goals, hoping to finish in 3:15. Running that fast for 26.2 is pretty flaky, you never know what my happen along the way. In my case today, I didn’t reach my goal but did set another marathon distance personal record (PR),and improved my Boston Qualifying time (BQ), so I really cannot complain. I was on pace to reach my goal through the first 17 miles, but the wheels then started to come off because of a new problem.
Wow, what an experience. Running the Boston Marathon was truly an urban adventure run. I met my brother, Bob, before the start at the Athlete “village.” I had arrived about 45 minutes earlier and found a nice place on the side of the high school, out of the wind, with nice warm sunshine. When Bob arrived, he joined me but as usual, was unprepared for the cold. California kid, you know. A kind guy gave him a cool full body paper suit that kept him nicely warm.
I had my Dirty Girl Gaiters on (black with skulls). Bob was the only one to comment on them. I said it was my fashion statement. Soon it was time for me to go to the start line for Wave 1. Bob was in Wave 2, a half hour later. The parade of 14,000 Wave 1 runners going up the road 0.7 mile toward the start was quite that sight to see! My wife texted me a good luck message from home. That was nice.
I only had one goal. Break my marathon Personal Reocrd (PR) of 3:24:49. Someone questioned whether that was a wise goal because Boston was quite a bit tougher than the downhill Ogden course where I had PRed. I hoped if I could keep away the cramps, that I could succeed.
My great joy in running isn’t experienced in the races, but rather in doing adventure runs. At times, these adventures can be amazing experiences when there is a perfect balance of challenge, solitude, and scenery. I was thrilled to again experience this feeling while running through the Paria Canyon near the Utah/Arizona border.
The Antelope Island Buffalo Run is now the largest trail race in Utah, this year with over 550 runners. It has a very unique setting on a large island in the Great Salt Lake, where the wildlife is protected by a state park.
I missed this race last year, choosing instead to run the Moab 100 held on the same date and this year considered missing it again. But then I got the crazy thought of running the Buffalo Run 50-miler twice, accomplishing 100 miles closer to home. It was just a thought, but buddy Jim Kern took it one step further. He asked Race Director Jim Skaggs’ permission and volunteered to be my crew during the night. Jim Skaggs asked permission from the park for me to run on the trails usually closed during the night. They were fine with the idea. So I had no excuses, and decided to go ahead with something that started as just a crazy thought.
A co-worker observed that I seemed to be more nervous about this 100-mile race than any other recent race. He was right. I really didn’t know what to expect, even though if successful, this would be my 30th career 100-mile finish in five years. My reason for a case of the nerves was a sore right knee. This knee had been scoped in 2004 and the doctor warned me that I should give up running. At that time I was not yet an ultrarunner, and not even a recreational runner. I ignored the doctor’s warning and put 14,000 miles on that knee since the operation. However, after my 83-mile run in the Grand Canyon on Thanksgiving weekend, the knee has been a problem again. Was my running career nearly over? The knee had calmed down, but I just wasn’t sure.
The spectacular beauty of the Grand Canyon called me back. With the long Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to again do an extended double crossing (R2R2R) in a non-traditional way. I would descend down the North Kaibab, from the North Rim, but instead of going up the South Rim using the usual trails, I would run 20 miles upriver along the primitive Tonto Trail and ascend up the unmaintained Grandview Trail to the South Rim. Then I would head back the same way. The total distance would be about 83 miles. I had accomplished this double crossing back in October 2007 and knew it was a very tough challenge. If you look at the hiking guides and total up the recommended time to take for all these segments, it should be a ten-day adventure. I hoped to accomplish it in about 28 hours. Last time it took me 34:07 with plenty of sight-seeing along the way
I had great fun guiding three others on a Grand Canyon double crossing (R2R2R). I’ve completed the full GC double-cross 11 times previously using various trailheads. (Another time I stopped short of the other rim during a 78-mile adventure run). For this adventure, we would start at the North Rim and cross over to the South Rim using Bright Angel Trail and then turn around and come back, about 48 miles.
The Javelina Jundred was held on Jalloween this year. This desert 100-mile race is run in McDowell Mountain Park near Fountain Hills, Arizona. The course is a loop format that runs on the 15.5-mile Pemberton Trail. We would have to run six loops in alternating directions and then run a shorter loop to bring the distance up to 101.4 miles.
The Pony Express Trail 100 is one of the most unique 100-mile races in the U.S. It runs on the historic 1860 Pony Express route in the western desert of Utah. This very remote section of the country has been untouched by modern development, except for the wide dirt road we would run on. Herds of antelope are seen on the course. This year runners even got a treat in seeing wild horses galloping in the desert. Some are believed to be descendants from the original Pony Express herd of horses.
I dreamed up this race four years ago after doing an adventure run on the historic route. To me, it felt amazing to be out in the beautiful desert, far away from civilization. I could look around me in every direction and not see a single man-made structure. Here I was, Davy Crockett, in the Wild West. All I could see was low mountains, sage brush, huge ant hills, and jack rabbits hopping away from me. I went away wishing that I could share that experience with others.
The Bear 100 is a tough mountain 100-mile race that runs end-to-end from Logan, Utah, to shores of beautiful Bear Lake in Idaho. This was the second year on the new Bear 100 course. This course has about 22,000 elevation climb, going up and down the canyons on its way to Bear Lake. This time of the year is ideal for a race in this location. Autumn is arriving and the trees are turning colors. We would run through groves of golden aspens, by red maples and scrub oak. It is an amazing view if you can take your eye off the trail from a few seconds.
