Community

Despite being in trial for most of the week, I was able to get in some good running and see some friends. I ran a few miles at Memorial Park on Monday. Then on Thursday I met a friend to run 5 miles on the trails. After getting cleaned up, I joined some people from the running club for our club meeting. We had elections and a group of great members were nominated and selected to serve this year. Friday I ran 7 miles at the park. I planned on running 14 but the sun was setting on me a little quicker than I was running.

It’s a pleasure to see that a lot of the runners in the 7 Hills Running Club have recently jumped into the running blogging community. Our club is lucky to have such a diverse and talented collection of runners. I’m happy that a few of them have joined me to write about what running means in their life and to tell what is happening in their running. You’ll find a link to many great 7 Hills blogs have been added in my blogroll.

Congrats to Angie and Anton Krupika along with any others who finished the Zane Grey. Angie ran the 50K while Krupicka braved the 50m. Meanwhile, I sat on my butt and ate Mexican food.

One of the traits that endurance athletes have is a true passion for the sport. In my experience this is often what separates the finishers from the DNFers. There are people who DNF because they sustain an injury and have a very good reason to drop — I’m not talking about those people (it’s happened to me). Then there are people who just don’t pull it through and drop out of the race.

Even if someone is running a race close to the cut off times an ultra isn’t easy. It isn’t easy to train for an ultra. There are plenty of days that I’d rather stay inside and watch some dvds. Days when it’s hot outside, days when it’s raining, or days when I’m sore from the workout yesterday. But when I look at the calendar and see that I’ve got a 50 miler coming up in three months — I’m not going to back down from the training. It’s hard to put in the necessary miles but endurance athletes do it because we’ve got passion fueling our desire.

It certainly isn’t easy to actually run the ultras. There are some races where everything just goes perfectly but for most of us that is rare. Even on those days it’s difficult to get through the course with the proper hydration, nutrition, and the usual challenges of the course.

More often then not the course presents it’s usually challenges along with a lot of surprises. It could be anything from dealing with having to crap in the woods to rolled ankles to dehydration to nausea to broken bones or whatever. There are race days where I feel like I couldn’t run one mile, let alone 31. There have been races where the rain was pouring down and lightening was striking throughout the park we were running in. Passion is what fuels me through any of those things.

What I love about endurance athletes is that we are passionate about our sport. That passion comes through in how we train, how we treat ourselves, how we run races, and even how we help others in our sport. We have passion to be our best and to experience the thrills of pushing yourself to the max with others.

I’m a little curious, why do they hate us? Seriously, I don’t have anything against marathoners. I don’t have anything against the elite who run spectacular races or against the bulk of runners who take over 3 and a half hours. Why do marathon runners have such a bad time with ultra runners?

I have a few thoughts on ultrarunners that might or might not be true:

• The elite are not nearly as elite as marathon runners
• This won’t change until there are major purses for winners of ultras
• This probably won’t ever change
• The field in ultras are better runners than the field in marathons
• People don’t go out and run an ultra on a whim like some certainly do in marathons
• It’s only just beginning for ultras. This is a relatively new sport and it’ll continue to evolve to better things.

A difficult decision to make as a race director is canceling the race. It’s not an easy decision for any RD to make. Of course, most people can probably remember that the Chicago Marathon canceled it’s race in the middle because of poor planning. But what about canceling for unforeseen reasons?

Jessica Deline, a runner and race director in southern California, had to make that decision this year. It is intentional that I said had to. When the fires raged through southern California this year it did more than destroy pristine forests. It also ruined any chance of racing on destroyed trails and obtaining permits from the forest service.

Jessica didn’t have any option but to cancel the race. Now there are some people who are upset with her because she has also decided to not refund the money. I didn’t sign up for the race, so I didn’t read any of the waivers that the entrants signed. She claims that it says that there will not be refunds. That doesn’t obligate her to enforce that waiver, however, she has chosen to enforce it. She would like to schedule the race for a different time this year and the money will help to obtain the necessary permit. That will guarantee the entrants entry into the race.

Is it legal for Jessica to do this? That’s a good question. Certainly it’s not the same race because it’s not on the same day. I know that my schedule is very difficult with being a busy lawyer. I wouldn’t be happy if this happened to me. Just because someone has a waiver doesn’t mean it’ll hold up in court if someone sues for a refund. Is it good practice to do this? Perhaps not if you want people to both come back again or pay in advance or both. The runners who want a refund and don’t get it will probably never come back. Nor will they encourage their friends to run the race.

I hope that all this is resolved for the best. Perhaps a partial refund to everyone who was entered and has to wait to race? Give them a little back (after all, the money in waiting could probably be earning interest in a race bank account?) for their burden? Perhaps a special grab bag item for the very early entrants? Perhaps just giving them a refund and encouraging them to apply again? I don’t know but I certainly feel for Jessica. I have talked to her before (albeit very briefly) and she seems like a very genuine person. I doubt she has any ill intent and know she will put together a kick ass event.

Good luck to everyone involved. Oh, and hold the personal attacks against a race director who is trying to do the right thing.

Just in case you’re interested, the message board posters at letsrun.com are having a little debate over the best way to run 100 mile weeks. At my max I am only running upwards of 50 miles in a week. I can’t image moving it to 100 miles on a steady basis. For what it’s worth, they all seem to agree that it’s in some combination of high singles and then doubling up your days with morning and evening runs.

Endurance Planet has produced a new podcast monthly magazine called Tales from the Trail. The first edition is about 45 minutes of content that includes a story about the Hardrock 100 (which sounds like someone reading a race report), a piece by Carey Smith about the Arkansas Traveler, and Andy Jones Wilkins.

On the face of it it sounds like a good idea. In fact, it is executed really well just like the endurance planet podcasts. But the $3.95 price tag mutes the intrigue (this month the podcast is available for free). With great podcasts, race reports, and blogs that have similar content for free, I’m sort of puzzled by the 4 dollar price.

Honestly, the 4 dollars isn’t a lot of money. But a couple months would buy you a good pair of socks for the trails. A year of it would come close to buy you a decent pair of kicks to dance through the trails. And so on. I guess the breaking point is that there are more blogs than I can read in a day, more race reports than I can ever get through, and more quality podcasts than I can listen to throughout the day. All of it is free. Even though the content here is good — I’ll leave it to someone else to buy a monthly copy at zombie runner.

I love the holidays. It’s fun to get to see family members that I haven’t seen in awhile; it’s fun to eat a lot of good food; and it’s fun to run with my stepfather.

He’s older than me, but he is consistently faster. He’s always good about giving me tips and advice about my own running, so I like to run with him. We only went out once this week but it was good.

I also went out on my own during a little snowfall. I don’t have much of that now that I’ve moved to Texas. I thought it would be a little more fun than it was due to the snow hitting my eyes pretty hard.

A good holidays!

I went for a quick five mile run today at the park. When I got there I saw that a group of cars, all of which belonged to members of the running club, were in the parking lot. I knew they were out there somewhere, so I ran the opposite direction they run. I passed them about 2 miles into my run and then met them as they finished.

It was nice to see them, but I realized that I miss running with the group. I like talking to them and enjoy the occasional run with them. I’ll have to join up with them later this week to have a nice little run.

It’s weird that something that can at once be so beautiful can also be so terrifying. I think most humans love fire — assuming it’s controlled. When you see something like what’s happening in California, it’s quite chilling. I know there are plenty of fellow runners in that area — my thoughts are certainly with you.

I know some people in my running club who always run alone because they want to go different distances than the group. I know other people in the club who will start with the group but soon are by themselves because of pacing.

I am guilty of both at times but not always.

I like to run further than a lot of people in my club. I am training for races and most of them are just getting exercise, running for fun, or whatever.

With different goals necessarily comes somewhat different methods to achieve those goals.

More often than not, I will run on my own before the group meets. Then I will run their run with them. If I run with the group first, I am often ahead of the group; thereby, I am running alone. If I run by myself first, I am a little worn down and tend to stay with the group because I’m tired.

Seems like a good way to get the best result for running with friends while getting a good base mileage for training.

When I pass hikers on the trails, I enjoy their little comments that they make. Typically it is enjoyable because while they are making the hike seem like they are climbing Everest, I am just bounding over any of the minor obstacle at 10 times their speed.

It makes me happiest when they have kids. One day a kid yelled out to his father, “Daddy look at that boy!” Today a father yelled out to his child, “Holy moly look at that guy go!”

It makes me happy because I envision that kid remembering all the fun he or she had on their camping trip with the family. Maybe somewhere in that memory, it will include his father being impressed with someone running on the trails. Maybe that might be enough to turn someone into the joys of trail running.

Maybe, just maybe.

After work, I called one of my running friends to see if he was going to go to the trails. He said that he was waiting for his daughter to call as they might grab dinner. After discussing how the sky was looking odd, we decided that I would go on my run and he’d give me a call later in the week.

Once I got to the park I could hear a little thunder in the distance. I decided that I would still run the five mile run as I had discussed with my friend. It’s a quick loop that is covered by a good amount of trees. I figured if any rain began to fall it would be blocked by the canopy overhead. I was wrong.

It didn’t take much time but I was soon drenched with rain. That doesn’t bother me — in fact, I enjoy running in the rain — but I was bothered by the lightening. It was around me in each direction and in very close proximity.  It dawned on me, with about 2 miles left, that I would be out there alone if I was hit by lightening.

I picked up the pace to try to get to some safety. Turning around wasn’t an option because it would be further to go. There aren’t any bail outs on this trail, so I was truly stuck with only one feasible direction to run.

As I turned around the corner on the trail, I saw someone running towards me. It was my friend who had come out to run and decided, with all the lightening, to risk his safety to make sure I made it alright! It revived my spirits and I ran even quicker to make it back to our vehicles.

As we got into our vehicles, he threw me a towel so that I wouldn’t get my interior soaked.  That’s what running friends are for!

This weekend and next, I do believe, is when NBC is going to air some of the Osaka Track and Field World Championships. If you join me in watching you’ll get to see a couple fantastic distance runners — Bernard Lagat and Alan Webb. They are both fantastic runners in their distances and should be quite the force for the American team in China at the Olympics.

I haven’t ever gone this far but at That’s Fit they link to eco-runners. This is people who run with a little plastic bag and collect trash on their run.

The odd thing about their post is that it says “it takes practice to swoop up that trash without breaking stride.” I think the more difficult practice is not breaking stride, while running, when you are collecting trash.

After work, I put in a quick Friday run of 10 miles. People worry that they can’t work out on a Friday because it’ll interfere with their social life too much, however, I was finished before 6:30.

I don’t recall how long it took but I didn’t push too hard. I figure that some of the runners at the Western States 100 will be doing  enough pushing for all of us.

If you want, you can chart their progress at the WS100 website. Meanwhile, I will actually have a life and be listening to US Supreme Court oral arguments on my computer…

It’s a little disconcerting that Stephanie has been harassed by a running club after posting a negative race report about the trail run. My best guess is that the running club wanted to defend their run against what they viewed as an incorrect response. I think that this is the perfect example of how a running club should not respond to negative publicity…

The fact is that running blogs are here to stay. There is a good chance that every publicized trail run is going to have at least one person who will blog about the race. This is a little different than the past when people would just give race reports to friends and family (maybe in person or maybe by email) but only in so far as it’s able to reach many more people.

All of this shouldn’t change the fact that a race should attempt to make the race as good as possible for all participants. There is a fine line that a race director has to straddle to ensure that they don’t go too far in assisting runners to the detriment of other runners. For example, they set up too many aid stations which stretches volunteers thin and increases the cost of the race. On the other hand, sometimes there is too little assistance and the trails aren’t cleared, there aren’t enough markings, and aid stations are virtually nonexistant. I understand it’s a very fine line.

The fine line is what makes it clear that a race will receive some negative reviews and some positive reviews. The goal should be to make more people happy than upset. Then a good race director has to be willing to accept the  inevitable criticism. Accept it even if you feel it is unwarranted. It’s really that simple.

How should the running club in Long Island handled this publicity? The easiest response would have been to sent an email to Steph (if they want to handle it privately) or leave a comment stating that they appreciate her thoughts, and are sorry they weren’t able to make it a better race for her this time, but they will take her criticism into account for the next event. Then they should follow up on that and really consider her comments.

I’m sorry that the Greater Long Island Running Club handled the negative publicity in the manner that they did and hope that they learn from their public relations mistakes.

My running club has a mixture of road running and trail running enthusiasts. It tries to draw an effective mix of the two with various scheduled runs but that cannot work.

The problem is that the head of the running club sets up the schedule so that he can make it to the various runs. This inevitably means that there won’t be enough scheduled runs to please either the trail runners or the road runners and we will chose to run together apart from the club.

Hence the renegade trail running group was born. We started out meeting at various times that were scheduled and at times that there weren’t scheduled runs so as to not interfere with the road runners who might want to join us later.

It didn’t take long before we just started to schedule runs as we please. This has effectively turned us into a separate running club that is merely an extension of the bigger running club. I’m not certain, but I would guess the road runners have begun something similar, although, they are less organized and not as rebellious.

I’m happy to say that the renegades, as we are called, have created our own t-shirts. I’ll have to snap a picture of one to show the new shirt.

Today I went to the Memorial Day club run and picnic. The run was an untested 5K course through a neighborhood. Although, or maybe in spite of, my time being a little over 25 minutes, I believe the course is actually longer than 5K.

After the race, we all hung out and talked with each other. We reconnected over great hamburgers and hotdogs. I enjoyed getting to see some of the runners that I don’t often see on the trails.

It appears that the Care Bears who ran the Bay to Breakers run have their own myspace page. Perhaps they will become like the running elvis’s and make appearances at various runs?

If you have a myspace, you should think about making them a friend so that you can race against the care bears.

May is designated, among other things, as National Bike Awareness Month in the US. This week has been the bike to work week with Friday being designated as a bike to work day.

I try to bike to work every day that I am not meeting a client or appearing in court. I think that the benefits are great: lower amounts of miles on my car, less fuel, exercise, being able to see my community at a slower pace, and stress relief. The negatives are only few: not being able to get to work immediately, being sweaty, drivers who don’t want to share the road, coworkers thinking it’s odd, and not being able to run out and buy a lunch.

How do I deal with the negatives? Well, I bring a messenger bag with me that has my change of clothes. I also put a couple of moisture wipes in it to take off the sweat. In my office, I have an underarm deodorant bar so that I can freshen up. I ride in on back road routes so that I won’t have to deal with as many cars, and I can explore new areas that way. I bring my lunch which also saves money.

I really enjoy it and hope that a few people try it. I didn’t think it would be as easy as it actually is.  As for the distance — this guy I knew in Dallas rides 42 miles a day, three times a week. Give it a try this week!

Zenhabits has a beginner’s guide to running that appears to be very informative. If you are thinking about starting a running habit, check it out.

The White Rock Marathon is largely for the charitable benefit of the Texas Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital in Dallas. This year, they were able to give a gift of $150,000. Personally, I think that it’s fabulous that a relatively unorganized sport is able to organize together for the greater good of our communities.

In choosing this hospital as a beneficiary, the White Rock Marathon wanted to pick a charity that also gives to the community. I believe they found it:

The Dallas hospital has treated 180,000 children since its inception in 1921, without ever charging a cent.

This particular gift went to various things. One of the recipients was given prosthetic legs so that he too can run.

One beneficiary is Cody McCasland, 5, of Colleyville, who recently received a new pair of prosthetic running legs. He wore the new legs and was constantly in motion throughout the reception and check presentation.

Cody’s lower legs were amputated because he was born without knees and otherwise would have needed a wheelchair. He has had several sets of prosthetic legs.

Clearly this alone is enough to change one persons entire life. I am proud to be a member of a community of runners who give selflessly to causes.

I took my friend out to the trails for his first time to run them. He did cross country, so he wasn’t completely in foreign territory. But he had fun and enjoyed how much wildlife is around you on the trails. We didn’t see anything besides trees and water but you could hear all the birds and breath the pure air. It was a good, laid back run.

If you want a simple and fun running log, check out the RunLog. Right now they have just under 350 members, but I think they are doing a great thing. More features are being rolled out and they take advantage of myopenid.com. All good things.

For awhile it was starting to get a little warm out here but now the weather wants to be finicky. That didn’t stop us from running a quick seven miles. Afterwards, we were hanging out in the parking lot and noticed a lone runner who passed with a friendly smile. All would be fine except it was dusk and even a state park can be dangerous. I don’t feel to safe running alone (what if I broke an ankle on a far out trail?) but I certainly wouldn’t run alone if I was female. Maybe it’s my job that has made me more sensitive to that but I’d play it safe and run with a group or when it’s not getting dark.

Good luck to all of you running the Rocky Raccoon tomorrow. I just ran a lap around the course and can tell you that there are quite a few wet spots. In fact, one area was nearly impassable without going through an inch or two of water. However, most of it is good and will be a fast course with great weather.

I will be out there from 6pm until midnight at the volunteer tent near camp site 174. Afterwards, I believe that I’ll be pacing someone on their last 40 miles.

See you on the trails!

After work today, I went and ran about 7 miles because I didn’t want to miss out on the last day of nice weather. Meteorologists are telling me that it’ll start to rain here (just in time to really muddy up the trails for the Rocky Raccoon 100 this weekend) tomorrow.

I felt a little guilty about worrying about a little rain when there are other runners about to battle what dogs can do multiple times better in Alaska. At least a few runners are going to be running the Iditarod Invitational in Anchorage, Alaska on the 24th of February. I can’t help but believing they are a little nuts but if it’s what makes them happy then I support them in it.

At least I don’t have to worry about an angry moose trampling me while I’m trying to drag my sled behind me even if a few rain drops are muddying my trails.

This morning I ran a 5K put on by the club that I joined. There was a decent turn out for their size — about six or seven people — so I had fun. The rain was slowly coming down and I was ready to go, so I tried to run it a little above my training pace. However, I took an early lead and didn’t give it up, so I didn’t push myself as hard as I might have otherwise. I came in around 26:45.

I went on a run yesterday and that might just be my last run in Dallas for quite some time. Today I went and got the keys for my new apartment in the Houston area (an hour from Houston). I’m sad to be leaving my friends and life in Dallas but I have a good job opportunity that I’d like to do for awhile.

Despite being sad about going somewhere where I don’t know anyone, I was happy to receive a call yesterday. I sent in my enrollment for a running club in the town where I’m living and the leader of it gave me a call saying they were having a social that evening! Even though I couldn’t make it down there for the social, I am very pleased that running will give me instant friends.

Running communities are great.

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here, but I am moving this coming weekend for a new job. The area is down towards Houston/Huntsville so I will spend a good amount of time running at the trails in Huntsville State Park. I was happy to see that the Rocky Raccoon, one of the 100 mile ultras, is coming up in a couple weeks at HS Park.

I wouldn’t be ready to run the entire thing by myself, but I think I could pace someone who is looking at a 30 hour pace. It seems like that would be a fun way to run 40 miles before jumping into a race without enough training.

Has anyone been a pacer before for anyone? Would you recommend it?

Despite the rain, I decided that I would go on a quick three or four mile run last night. There was a lull in the rain, so I figured I could miss most of the rain, which I did. I also wanted to try out my new hat and gloves in the colder weather. I’m happy to say that I was so warm that both my hands and head were sweating a little.

After I made it out a mile and half, I decided to turn around and head back in. It was sort of errie at the lake because the only things I saw were the flooded lake and a few random cars parked along the side of the lake. I’m guessing the people inside of them were only there to make out on that somewhat secluded road.

I did have my flashlight with me, so I felt pretty safe, and was going back at a good clip. I was able to see about a 100 feet in front of me a lone runner was coming the opposite direction on the path. When we crossed, he turned around and asked if he could run with me. Of course, I said that I’d be happy to have someone else out with me.

He let me know that he’s training for the Cowtown Marathon in Ft. Worth and was out on an 18 mile run. I think he was also a little lonely out there as there was really nobody running. This wasn’t even late, maybe like 5:45 or 6pm. It was great to have someone come over and decide to run.

Nick, if you happen to run across this, thanks for running with me for a couple miles and best of luck at the marathon.

Today was way too rainy in Dallas for me to run. I decided to take the evening off and relax a little bit. Yesterday, I ran about 3 miles, biked 12 minutes, and then jumped rope for another 15 minutes.

Go over and congratulate Jessica on her recent sponsorship!

Catra Corbett is going to hit 5,000 miles of running this year. For her 8 years of running, she has tried to consistently hit at least 4,500 miles.  In case you aren’t good at math, that’s nearly 12.5 miles per day. This year it will be 13.7, or just over a half-marathon a day…

She also recently got a new, cool tattoo with a deep meaning. I’m not sure if that was a reward or not but she definitely deserves one for that many miles. Keep running and you’ll surely find that true love!

I went out to mile 16 around 8:15 this morning and was there in plenty of time to find a nice spot to cheer. I ended up helping the Dallas Running Club (formerly the Cross Country Club of Dallas) with a couple things. They told me that the mile 17 group only had a few people helping and would like more volunteers. I went to mile 17 and helped by giving out water to everyone who needed it. If you ran by there, I was the first person and have curly red hair.

Everyone looked pretty great out there and it was a good day for a run. I don’t think the rain began until most people were finished and the temperature was nice. Good job to everyne who ran!

Tomorrow is the big day! There are a lot of people in town to run this race and everything is very exciting. I decided that I would not run the half or full marathon this year, so I will be out cheering people on. You’ll find me somewhere around the 16 to 18 mile area and I’ll be the 20 something redhead. I hope everyone running the White Rock Marathon has a great race!

I said no to the RTR, White Rock Marathon (whatever the sponsor is this year, blah), this year because I haven’t trained enough. I’d be a pathetic walker by the 14th mile and roll in at something like 4.5 hours, so I said no. But then I get tempted because so many other Dallas runners are going to be there and hanging out afterwards. My favorite part of running is the run but a close second is the awesome community. I’m torn about the rock.

I took my daily run this morning through an area of the park which I normally avoid and saw something odd. There was a large family celebrating a birthday party with the cake, present, and food you would expect. The only thing that was unexpected was this was at 10am. I only wish my family celebrated birthdays with mid morning parties.