4 posts tagged “ultra running”
Sorry, obscure Counting Crows reference. I'm not even sure that line is in the non-live versions. Anyway, my race (Hawthorn Half Day) was over the weekend. Except for the 90+ degree heat it went well...90+ degree heat is bad in a 12 hour race. 69.88 miles won the individual race, 90.16 miles won the 2 person division, and 114 miles won the 6 person race. My wife's 6 person team won the mixed division with 109 miles (breaking the course record). It made for a long weekend but we've been lucky to have some great runners come in and make the race a ton of fun.
I learned my lesson. Never run 2 ultra's in 3 weeks. The race was another trail race and was made up of 3 laps around Clinton Lake, each lap being 10 miles. The course was tough, but I wouldn't say it was terrible. The bad part really was the mud, not the constant up and down of the course that you might expect. In fact the whole course was a mess from the 2" of rain they got the night before. The mud caused you to spin your tires a lot, especially up all of the short step hills. On top of that, there was 40 MPH wind gusts the whole time. I was completely shot after 2 laps and actually stopped. After a 5 or 10 minutes I decided to go ahead and try and at least walk the last lap. After a half mile I decided to start running the down hills and the flats. For some reason I started to feel better and ended up coming all the way back to finish 2nd. The great thing about these ultra races are the people. The last couple races I've been lucky enough to meet some great ultra runners and while I'm moving back to road racing again, I hope that I will get to run into many of them again. The first 2 laps I ran with Joel Lammers (the overall winner) a great guy from Wisconsin and it made the long race enjoyable being able to chat with him along the way. The last lap I ran with Christine Crawford, who also hails from the Badger state. Having meet her 3 weeks ago at the Land Between the Lakes, made getting to suffer through the last lap together a little more enjoyable. So congrats to Joel and Christine on their victories. Best wishes to both on their future races, as for me, it's back to the roads (for now) where I belong. The only planned race in the future for me is Chicago in October so I'll have to keep you posted as I recover from the last two. Happy Trails (so to speak) and happy running.
It's been a busy week, the count down begins. The Clinton Lake 30 miler is now 3 days away. Now is time for my favorite part of training...taper... Anyway Denny got bad news, a stress frature was the result of the bone scan, which will sideline him for the next month at least. Also Tim and Tom have now survived the first 4 legs of the Marathon Des Sables in Moracco. This leg was the 48 mile stage, the real hard test of the race. With 2 stages to go our prayers are with them. You can check out the info from the Michalob Ultra Adventure Team. Best wishes, happy running, and I'll keep you posted on the race Sunday.
Well, the 60K went well...sort of. The last 7 miles were hard. The course was a loop that you run 3 times and the second half was hilly. So the end of the third lap was hard. I had to walk the hills. I did however
