Davy Crockett’s Running Frontier

For the 4^th 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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 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.

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 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.  

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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. continue reading…

I again ran in the Wasatch Front 100 that runs in the mountains from Kaysville, Utah to Midway, finishing at the Homestead Resort.  This was my focus 100-mile race of the season.    I really wanted do well at this home-town race.  In 2006 I struggled to a 34:15 finish and that has bugged me for three years. 

This is a very tough 100 mile race with nearly 27,000 feet of climbing.  Any finish is great, any finish under 30 hours is super.   I set what I thought was a realistic goal of 28:30. 

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 For the third time, I entered the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 held in the mountains on the north-east side of beautiful blue Lake Tahoe.  This race is in its 4th year.  The course is laid out on state park and state forest land, climbing ridges overlooking beautiful Lake Tahoe and various reservoirs.  The surface is mostly very runnable, soft single track.  There is about 19,500 feet of climbs, aided by many switchbacks.  Most of the course runs between 7,000-9,000 feet elevation.   This race for some reason has a low finisher rate, but to me, this is an “easy” mountain 100 course.

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“I have seen at least a couple runners who have looked worse than you.”

– comment from an aid station volunteer at mile 92.5 after seeing several hundred runners before me. 

I ran in the Bighorn 100-mile trail run for the 4th time.   Many times these race reports are a means for me to write about an achievement, perhaps setting a new personal best time for a course or a distance.  This is not one of those times.  The 100-mile distance is such an unpredictable adventure that you never are very sure what the end result will be.   I learned a lot about overcoming adversity and not giving up on a goal.  For me, this story is a victory — just not the victory I went into the race hoping for. 

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I again ran in the Moab 100.  There were actually four types of races running at the same time on the same 5.37-mile loop course. In addition to those running the 100-solo event, are runners running the 24-hour solo (as many miles as you can do in 24 hours), 12-hour solo runners, and 24-hour relay teams. Last year somehow I won the Moab 100 with a time of 23:35. Basically the runners who were ahead of me all quit and I was the last one standing. Four runners finished behind me. This race is tough mentally because you can return to your comfortable car every 5.37 miles and also if you quit early, you still get credit in the 24-hour version of the race. 

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To close out my 2008 racing schedule, I decided to give a fixed-time 24-hour event a try. I entered Across the Years (ATY) 24-hour footrace held at Nardini Manor, in Buckeye, Arizona, east of Phoenix. For a fixed-time race, you try to cover as many miles as you can in 24 hours. Each year ATY attracts many of the elite in sport from around the world. I went away with a deep respect for those athletes who do well running this type of race.

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October 17-18, 2008 

Course Description

The Pony Express Trail 100 Endurance Run is a unique 100-mile race that runs on a section of the historic trail in the west desert of Utah.   This area of the country is very isolated and undeveloped, nearly untouched since Pony Express riders rode across it in the 1860s.  

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September 26-27, 2008 

“You’re not dead yet!!”  – Yelled from my crew at mile 76

This was a first for me, trying to finish two 100-milers within 13 days of each other.  I had recently finished the very tough Plain 100 and I felt ready to take on The Bear.  This year the Bear 100 was run on a totally new course — a point-to-point from Logan, UT to Fish Haven, ID, on the shore of deep blue Bear Lake.  The new course claimed to be nearly 23,000 feet and I have no doubt that it is.   Course designers, Leland Barker and Phil Lowry hoped to present a course very similar to Wasatch 100 in difficulty and experience.

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September 13-14, 2008

“Wow, you are fast!  Are you in some sort of marathon?” – Comment from a motorcyclist at the top of Tyee Ridge. 

Plain 100 is a very unique, tough 100-mile race held on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington.   I would rank it among the top-three toughest 100-mile races in the U.S.   What makes it so tough and unique?   1. The race is actually about 107 miles.  2. There are no course markings!  Racers must use maps, directions, and navigation skills. 3. There are no aid stations.  No pacers are allowed.  It is a self-supported race.  You must haul enough food for at least 60 miles before stocking up again and must obtain water in passing streams.  4. The trail conditions can be very challenging because of dust that permeates shoes and socks.  5. There are three massive climbs (and descents) of nearly 5,000 feet and a total of 21,000 feet elevation gain. 6. The race has a very low finish rate despite a generous 36-hour cutoff.  There have been only 32 finishes in the first ten years of the race – 21% success.

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Well, I gave it a good shot, but didn’t finish this year at Leadville.   As you can see from my splits below, I did very well for the first 50, slowed a little, but stayed ahead of my 2007 pace clear to Halfmoon.   I was still way ahead of cutoffs.

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