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Month: June 2013

Solo Kat’cina Mosa 100K run

Probably the toughest 100K race in the country is held in Utah, in August each year. It is called Kat’cina Mosa 100K but its name has nothing to do with the geography. The race director has interests in the Hopi culture from Arizona, so he named the course after it. A more apt name would probably be Wasatch Back 100K. The course runs a huge loop behind the Wasatch Mountains that rise above Provo and Springvale. Nearly half of the course shares the same course as Squaw Peak 50, but in the opposite direction. Kat’cina Mosa runs clockwise and includes about 17,000 feet of climbing along the way over its 62 miles.

For the past ten weeks, I have been doing very long weekend runs instead of daily workouts. I have accomplished eight runs of 50 miles or more during those ten weeks. By doing so many very long runs in close succession, my body is adapting and recovering very fast, getting ready for the next run. This weekend, I chose to run the Kat’cina Mosa course solo and unsupported, through the night.

Bighorn 100

This was my 7th finish at Bighorn.  I was amazed how more competitive the field is now compared to my first time there in 2006.   I started slow, felt really slow, but I was just about 5 minutes slower on the first huge climb compared to my best year in 2010.

Aging and shifting focus

As I near age 55, thoughts about how aging affects my ultrarunning are frequent.  Because I started running at age 46, I never knew what youthful speed I might have possessed.  I consider my running antics a constant experiment for one who is aging and hope to inspire other of similar agedness to be active and experience life on the trails.  At age 46, I started slowly, barely finishing races, but with each year saw improvement and wondered when I would reach my speed peak before age became the main limiting factor.

Squaw Peak 50 adventure run

After running Bryce 100 last week, I took a rest for a few days and the decided that I should to do something crazy.  I went and ran the Squaw Peak 50 course unsupported because I missed it last week since it was on the same weekend as Bryce 100 this year.