Congrats on the race, c-jags! I scoped out that course profile and I hate courses like that where it's just constant hills over and over again. I'd rather run straight up a mountain for a few miles and then back down than just constant rolling hills.

I'm racing the Kokanee Half Marathon in South Lake Tahoe this Sunday. I've had a decent training build-up over the last 5 weeks, so hopefully I can put down a little bit of speed during the race.

I don't cuss much in real life, but when I came across the 300+ foot last hill with about a mile or two left, I let out the second f word I've ever uttered out loud in my life. If Chris with Tejas wasn't a such a nice guy I would have punched him at the finish line.

finally pulled the trigger on Bandera 100K. Guess its about time, since next week is week 6 of training, and my last week of "easy" running.

That'll be fun. They ran that at Camp Eagle last year right?

In trail news. I've been going out there early to finish for soccer games a lot of the fall. Started at 5:30 and finished as my normal crew was starting at 6:30. Dark and headlamped the whole time.

During my kids game I get a text that I missed this by about 10 minutes.

Y'all have a very different definition of missing something than I do. Snakes, and particularly snakes like the ones pictured, are top of the list of things I want nothing to do with.

The coral snake is almost harmless.

Yeah, it was at camp eagle last year due to rain/flooding at HCSNA.

This will be my fourth time to do Bandera.

I get that they are not aggressive and mostly not deadly - I just don't parse venomous snakes in general. I think everyone has "that thing" and that one is mine.

ptothemo said:

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Y'all have a very different definition of missing something than I do. Snakes, and particularly snakes like the ones pictured, are top of the list of things I want nothing to do with.

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"Just missed" as in their fight happened somewhere in the 20 minutes I passed there in the dark and when my crew came along.

I've seen 2 or 3 corals out there. They're super docile and not aggressive. Pretty little beasts even if they're satan incarnate

DDP

2nd place at the Kokanee Half Marathon today in 1:43. I was hoping for more like 1:40 but there was 1200 feet of gain and my legs were spent for the hills in the last 4 miles. Fun day.

Nice! Stay healthy!

I'm on the waitlist. Got in for this year, but had to decline.

I did too much in the months leading up to the 2018 event that I had to drop out. Will try not to make that mistake again.

RockOn said:

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Got in to the 2020 Barkley fall classic. Hopefully I'm good to go in a year

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Awesome. Don't die.

Can't wait to hear how this goes!

I'm running a half marathon in wisconsin on saturday. Its a on crushed granite trail, so more like a road race. However, the high on saturday is supposed to be 37 degrees with a chance of snow showers.

That's great! Congrats.

Moab 240 starts tomorrow morning. I'm out here to pace a buddy who paced me at TRT this summer. He's bib #80. Tracking here: [url] http://www.moab200.com/2019-moab-live.html[/url]

I'm kind of excited to be out here for the race, but also kind of annoyed that I took a week of vacation to mostly sit in a rented Suburban for the better part of the next 4 days. I'll try to post pics if I get a chance.

RockOn said:

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Got in to the 2020 Barkley fall classic. Hopefully I'm good to go in a year

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Awesome

Pics from the start of Moab.

Goggins is running this year, right?

AggieOO said:

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Goggins is running this year, right?

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Yeah, he's around 15th place right now, I think. We saw him come into the aid station at mile 18. Our runner is around 20th place. Probably started out too fast.

Goggins is in 3rd now. Obviously it's early but that's impressive.

Corner Canyon 50K in salt lake city in the morning. Gonna be below freezing at the start. Course bridges area between salt lake and Utah county.
Interesting thing is that the race started as a fundraiser for the RD who had a rare disease. Every year they race supports a different person.

Nice job today 00.

I was expecting a bit more elevation but I'm guessing it was road race?

Sub 1:50 ain't shabby regardless buddy! Looks like a PR!

Appreciate it.

Not even remotely a PR. My PRs in the half and marathon were pre-strava days. I'd have to go about 20 mins faster to PR. Still, for current fitness I'm happy with it. I've only done slow base miles. Surface was a crushed granite type. Snow flurries and a hell of a headwind the entire race.

AggieOO said:

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Appreciate it.

Not even remotely a PR. My PRs in the half and marathon were pre-strava days. I'd have to go about 20 mins faster to PR. Still, for current fitness I'm happy with it. I've only done slow base miles. Surface was a crushed granite type. Snow flurries and a hell of a headwind the entire race.

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You should be happy.

Except for the fact that EK ran a full marathon 10 minutes slower than you ran a half.

For reals. Great job amigo. Enjoy the weather up there.

Quick update from Moab. I'm sitting at the final aid station 16 miles from the finish waiting for our runner to arrive. The goal is to get him done before it gets dark and I think there's a good chance of that.

I've run about 78 miles with him on 4 separate segments of the course. So far, the closest thing that I can compare this experience to is a relay like TIR where you drive to the next checkpoint and wait for your runner to arrive and get ready to go run. Except you do it for four straight days/nights and when you run it's for 7 hours.

Our runner is legitimately delirious now, which I've never experienced in person. He's called his wife twice in the last 2 hours to ask her what she has been doing for the last 5 days because he thinks all of this has been a dream and it's not real. Kind of funny, but kind of scary.

coop-aero-06 said:

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Quick update from Moab. I'm sitting at the final aid station 16 miles from the finish waiting for our runner to arrive. The goal is to get him done before it gets dark and I think there's a good chance of that.

I've run about 78 miles with him on 4 separate segments of the course. So far, the closest thing that I can compare this experience to is a relay like TIR where you drive to the next checkpoint and wait for your runner to arrive and get ready to go run. Except you do it for four straight days/nights and when you run it's for 7 hours.

Our runner is legitimately delirious now, which I've never experienced in person. He's called his wife twice in the last 2 hours to ask her what she has been doing for the last 5 days because he thinks all of this has been a dream and it's not real. Kind of funny, but kind of scary.

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Praying he comes in safely.

On my 25k a few weeks back I passed a few 100kers. I always stopped to check on them. One of them didn't know what lap she was on and I had to read her watch to her. She only had 7 miles left but had no idea how to do the math and figure it out.

Scary stuff.

reminder, as we move into fall trail racing here in texas. If anyone wants a 20% discount code for any of the Spectrum Trail races, hit me up.

I'm finally back home and rested after Moab, and I'm still trying to gather my thoughts about the race. Here's the final data for the runner, Scott, who I was there to pace:

http://trackleaders.com/moab240-19i.php?name=Scott_Jenkins

In summary, he was doing very, very well and was in roughly 15th-20th place throughout most of the race. He slept for about 1 hour at mile 75, and slightly over 1 hour at mile 121. After that, we all (Scott, myself, and the other two members of our crew) got a little bit too excited about him finishing so well that we completely ignored the warning signs that he needed more sleep and his body completely shut down for the last 12 miles of the race.

All of us were new to this race and this distance, and I think it really showed. We absolutely should have had him sleep for 2-3 hours at mile 185, or 201. I honestly think that would have solved everything. Maybe if he had done that, I would have a much more positive feeling after this race. But, because of how the whole weekend went, I came away with a very negative opinion of this particular race, and 200+ mile races in general.

With about 8 miles to go, the route follows a single track trail the descends from a plateau up above the Colorado River down along its banks. With so many runners experiencing extreme fatigue and sleep deprivation I'm honestly surprised that nobody has fallen off that cliff and down into the river.

Right before the race started, the RD had the runners recite the catchy phrase "If I get hurt, lost, or die, it's my own damn fault" (which I think she ripped off from Leadville). Everyone had a little laugh and off they went. But looking back on that now, it makes me pretty sick to my stomach. It was about 38 degrees outside when Scott ran through the night and finished the race. If it happened to be about 10 degrees colder (which it was on the first night of the race) he probably would have suffered from hypothermia just because he wasn't moving enough to stay warm. He had all the mandatory gear with him, but I doubt it would have been enough.

Anyway, I hope this wasn't too negative. Just wanted to provide an update for those who might be interested

Edited to be less dramatic and negative upon further reflection.

looks/sounds awesome. that said, i have ZERO desire to do a 200.

well, i went out for an easy 6 on the trail at lunch today. I've run on these trails regularly over the past few years, and they've been adding short sections here and there. So today, when I got to a new trail junction at mile 5 that wasn't there a couple weeks ago, in true trail runner fashion, i thought, "hmmmm, i wonder where this goes." almost 5 miles later, I got back to the parking lot. Ended up putting in 9.8 miles on a 6 mile day. Ooops. That said, I'm super stoked that I know have 10+ miles of trail close to the house that starts/ends at a brewery.

Beautiful pics!

What kind of poles were you using? I'm headed to the Franklin Mountains in a few weeks and looking for recommendations.

That's good news about the new trails, OO!

As for the trekking poles at Moab... First of all, those pics are not of me, they are of the runner I was pacing. I don't use poles, even on very steep, rocky, mountainous terrain. And a few hours after those pics were taken, I finally convinced my runner to ditch the poles too, and he ran much better without them.

I'm of the opinion that unless you train with poles on very steep terrain on a very regular basis, then poles will slow you down. The poles he used in the race were these: https://www.rei.com/product/148630/rei-co-op-flash-folding-trekking-poles-pair