Soldier Ridge 50K!

#27 Ultra Marathon for 100 by 100 is now completed on 8/4/16!      Total time: 7:07:32

Through a funding site called GoFundMe, I managed to fund Alzheimer's research $225.00 instead of just my contribution of $100.00.  It is so worth it and I can't thank Larry Cass and Tracy Carlin for supporting me and 100 by 100 on this run.  Thank you both so very much.  It really means a lot.

This particular run was a totally self-supported run out at the Soldier Ridge trail in Sheridan Wyoming.  I was a bit skeptical of doing this run now after just finishing a 50K less than 2 weeks ago, but I felt good and was in great shape, so why not?  Basically I set up to do 3 loops of 10.4 miles on the trail.  It was not, in no way, as hard as some of my other races I've done in the past, but that's ok.  It's all about supporting Alzheimer's research and getting in 100 Ultramarathons in!  After every lap on the trail I would come back to the trailhead and my car, and fill up on food and drink.  Pretty easy to say the least.  It turned out to be a fantastic cool day too.  I originally was going to do it on 8/6/16 but the weather looked to be really hot so I adjusted the date.  Hey, that's what's great about doing a run on your own!

I started out the run with my brother in law, Tim Sandman and he did 3 miles with me starting out at 6 am.  It was great having him with me - as it was his first time out on the trail.  He was very impressed with it.  He informed me of all the various grasses and birds we saw on the trail too.  We saw one runner with 2 dogs at the start, but for the entire rest of the day I only saw 1 more person on a bike!  On the second lap I listened to some of my music on the iPod, so that was great.  Thank you to Santana, Joe Walsh, and Joe Satriani!  But then, I met up with my wife Lori at the start of my final lap at the trailhead!  How great is that!  Lori ran with me for the the last 8 miles and it was so great because she had many things to inform me about and we talked the entire time.  It was sunny the entire day but we always had a very nice cool breeze and that kept us cool.  Perfect day to run.

We came home, showered, and went out for a later lunch.  I then texted and sent a photo of me drinking a beer to my ultra running buddies.   Bj immediately told me to take out my orange slice in my beer as it was not up to "ultra" drinking standards.  I was informed that my choice of beer is "15% Girl by volume".  Ha!  Oh, well, such is life, I guess I can live with that.  Whatever......

Here are some pics!  Thanks again everyone for the support!  Have a great day!

Donated:  $100.00  on 8/5/16
  ($225.00 total donated for Alzheimer's research)

Go Fund Me!

Please help in my quest if you can!

Thank you very much

and

for all of your support through the years!

gofundme.com/2h462vw

Beautiful day for the 26th Ultra!

The Antelope Butte Mountain Festival 50K Ultramarathon is now written in the books!

It was such an outstanding day yesterday 7/23/16 in the mountains above Sheridan, Wyoming!  Blue skies all day, lots of sunshine, a cool breeze and temps in the low 60"s - what could be better for a runner?  The course was a definite challenging course (aren't they all?)  with two, very big mountainous climbs that we went up and down 2 times.  Oh yeah, I got my elevation training in too with the course staying up at the 9000 ft. range almost all day.  I felt it for sure all day.

I thought my time of (around) 7:48 was good for this course and I was very happy to finish without any substantial problems (sounds boring doesn't it).  Oh well, I was proud the way I ran and have learned to climb better and more efficient, without straining a lot of muscles.  I have struggled with this in the past and I'm doing better.  The left knee pain (which I have always had to deal with since my orthoscopic surgery back in the late 90"s) started up at around the 18 mile mark and didn't let up.  But, I just slow down and take it in stride, and manage the pain efficiently - or it least try to!

This was a very small race with around only 20 people in the whole 50K run.  I ran with a couple guys from Mississippi who have done the Leadville 100 in their past.  They were very friendly and we talked for a good 5 miles or so until they took off on me.  I was basically alone for the entire route - which was ok, so I took in the great weather and great views on the tops of mountain passes.

This is kind of embarrassing, but I when I was rounding a corner about a 1/2 mile away from the finish, I mistakenly thought the cheers I heard were all for the people in the race who were finishing.  I thought how nice that was that people were doing that!  I was getting a little chocked up and picked up the pace to finish my race nice and strong.  BUT, I was greatly mistaken and as I got near the finish, I noticed all the cheers were coming from the music stage where the festival was actual going on.  I was embarrassed.  As I got to the finish, there were a couple people standing around - that was it, no cheering, no nothing - all except for a high five from Cheryl (Wyo Timing).

Unfortunately for my wife Lori who was waiting patiently for hours on end didn't get to cheer me in.   No one could help her find where the runners would be coming from - so she took a different side road that was not the finishing road and missed me entirely.  I finally caught up with her about an hour after finishing.  She was really mad and I really felt bad for her.  SO, we had plenty of beer libations and listened to some great music at the festival and continued to have a great day in the mountains!

Here are some pics!  Enjoy and thank you again for all of your support of this quest!

Donated $100.00 7/24/16

I hope I can one day emulate Bob Hayes........

This short 4 minute film about the near 90 year old runner, Bob Hayes resonates with me so much I can't stand it!

Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Y-aVZAr8s

50 MILE ZION TRAVERSE 25TH ULTRA!!! (with side trip to Angels Landing)

100 BY 100 Is Now Officially 25% Completed!

The Zion Traverse has been on the "bucket list" of most ultra runners that I know for awhile now.  And now I know why!  Holy cow, what a fun adventure run this was!  Taking more than 15 hours to complete, 4 of my ultra running friends and myself ran from the east end of Zion National Park to the west end on April 15, 2016 at 5:30 am.  I'll have everyone note now though, that it wouldn't have been completed without the aid station help of my wife Lori Lyle at mile 34 of this run.  Necessary food and drink were essentially needed at this point in the run, and we owe the completion to her.  Thank you so much Lori!  I love you!  (so do the other guys!)

It's hard to describe a run like this.  Zion is truly, God's Country.  (just look at the above picture!)  Awesome. Incredible.  Outstanding.  Hugely scenic.  Panoramic.  Intense, etc. etc., and HARD!  Oh yeah, we were all tired at the end.  After all, we did have 10,000 feet of elevation gain to run up.  Getting up at 3 am was the easiest part, running up the extreme grades were the hardest, but finishing was the best!  The weather picture the week leading up to the run did not look good.  A huge winter storm was moving in exactly on the day of the run, and most of the guys couldn't go any other day, so we knew we had to go on tax day, final.  Done deal.  All day long, we endured 40 mile per hour winds.  Temperature was in the low 40's, but felt like 30's for sure, we also had snow on the higher sections of the run (around 25 miles), lots of nice water crossings, and muddy trails at the end. The best thing is that we didn't get any rain.  That would've made for a cold and wet miserable long day.  Thank God for that.  But, as luck would have it though, we got up on Angels Landing and the wind died down for a couple minutes and the sun came out.  We all quickly snapped up pictures as fast as we could and got down to continue our run.  From then on, the sun left and the snow and wind continued on throughout the day and night.  We were extremely lucky to have that brief break on Angels Landing.  I know that God and my Mom were looking out for us all.

What is great about doing this run at Zion is that all the trails are very well marked and are easy to figure out.  Most of the water you need needs to be filtered out at certain streams along the way, so we were all tuned into that - when and where, etc.  We all carried the most amount of water and food we could carry and only had to filter water only one time.  It would've been a lot different if we hadn't had Lori to fill up our water at mile 34 OR had it been 80 degrees out!  Throughout the day we all ran at different speeds and 2 of the runners (Steve and Joey) finished 2 hours before me.  I finished with BJ and Robert at around 10 pm.  This was a little over my anticipated finishing time, however, in the end, it doesn't matter.  It was just a fantastic run with fantastic and very knowledgeable ultra running buds!  Thank you all for your friendship.  I feel lucky to know you all.

I am so happy the way this turned out and so appreciative of not only Lori, my running friends, but just the fact that we all can experience something like this together.  I feel very lucky to have the ability to run and to help out in a small way to Alzheimer's research.

Here are a few pics of this outstanding run.  I will always treasure this one!
100 by 100 is now 25% completed!  Thank you all for your continued support and for continue to read this blog!

$100.00 Donated 4/16/16

The Start!

The official end!

 The Finish!

Mr. Zion!

Just 2 weeks later........#24th Ultra is done!

Well, all I can say here is my Mom guided me well through this one!  Thank you Momma!

The 2016 Red Mountain 55K is now completed!

It is well advised to always take some time off between any Ultramarathons, but I went against the grain here and decided since we were down in St. George already, to run this Ultra only a few miles away from our house!  It turned out to be a great choice.  I basically took it easy through the early parts and held on to a conservative and steady pace through the whole adventure.  I even had some left at the end and started picking up the pace a mile from the end!

I was a bit leary of the 8 hour time limit when I heard 5 minutes from the start of the race that the course was actually 34 miles - basically another 55K.  Having done a time of 8:40- 2 weeks ago, I was kind of worried.  However!  The sand gods did not grace the course with their impenetrable sand!  Yes!  There was plenty of rock though and switchbacks!  Whoa!  The course had us go up 4 separate rock reef peaks in the Santa Clara Reserve outside of Ivins, Utah.  This was a very interesting area with an unreal amount of bike/running trails everywhere!  Oh, and did I say rock everywhere?  There wasn't a tree within miles in this area!  Here's a picture of the area.....

The course was set up nice with a main aid station in the middle of the course and runners would do all their separate loops from that area.  It's nice so you could set up your drop bag their and not have to carry a lot on your run.  The longest and hardest loop was the last one (naturally) and went on for 10 miles.  After this loop we had a 5 mile slog down a trail, a couple of roads, and a trail called "upper graveyard".  Naturally, I did not want my race to end there, so I gust churned through that area with my head down and said a couple of prayers!

I saw Lori with Shady a mile before the last aid station and she cheered me on and took pictures. She told me I was making good time and that it was just about 1pm.   It was sure nice to see her for sure!  She ran a while with me and Shady by my side.  I then saw Lori and Shady about a mile from the finish and it inspired me to pick up the pace and bring this little adventure to an end!  I did just that and came through at 7:50:40 and was totally relieved.  Very happy to be done!  Lori, Shady and I celebrated with some served smoothies and relaxed with runners whom I ran with during the day.

I met one guy who actually fell only about 2 miles into the race.  He hit his face directly on a rock and bled the entire run!  It also was his first ultra to boot!  What a way to get introduced to ultra running!  He is bound to be an ultra runner now!  Another guy whom I ran with for the first part of the 7.7 mile loop was Tom.  Tom also ran the Antelope 55K run two weeks ago as well!  Tom ran with a straw hat so I could always see him up the trail.  He finished only about 20 seconds ahead of me and I didn't even see him on the run for the last 22 miles!  Go figure?

Anyway, I feel so blessed to be able to run these ultras and to keep contributing to the research for a cure for Alzheimer's.  I know my Mom is gracing me to keep this tradition up and is granting me all these days of running I do during the year.  Thank you Mom and God!

Here are some more pictures!  Thanks everyone for your support!

$100.00 donated 3/6/16

A Fun Day at the Beach! (sort of)

Wow!  I now know what running in deep deep sand is all about!  Holy smokes!

The 23rd 100 by 100 Antelope Canyon 55K Ultramarathon is now in the books.  It was held in Page, Arizona on February 20, 2016.  I tell ya, my good friend Joey Schrichte and I ran this race and we totally earned the accolades just for finishing!  Absolutely stunning views the entire way - either going through deep sand or on rock reefs that were made for mountain goats to travel over!  It was a true adventure and we loved every moment of it!  This race is what ultra running is all about!

Joey and I met at the Lake Powell Resort on Friday, February 19 and checked into our hotel.  Since he moved to Durango, CO. we had much to talk about!  It was fantastic catching up with everything and it continued the entire time we were together for the weekend.  It was just a fantastic time, that's all I can say!  When we picked up our race packets a little while later there were a LOT of cars in the parking lot.  I really couldn't believe it.  Turns out that there were 222 runners just in the 55K!  There was also a 1/2 marathon and a 50 miler.  Anyway,  the race area was full of people.  A little unusual for some of the ultra marathons I've done in the past.

So next up, we needed to pre-load with a big meal and decided on some place called the Big Budda, or something.  It turns out that this place is a great Thai and Sushi restaurant and had everything we wanted.  We stocked up on everything we could manage to stuff down ourselves.  It was a one tasty meal!  Then we went back to the hotel and prepared for our next day.  I had lots of things to do.  Joey, being 30 years younger, had a few things, but not much.  Joeys biggest decision probably was which shoes he was going to be wearing the next day!  For being such an unreal fast ultra runner, he exists off very little.  It's unreal.  Oh, how I'd love to be young again!  Oh my!  Next up, sleep.

I wake up at exactly 2 minutes before my alarm should go off (4:45am) and it is time!  I begin my usual ultra ritual of making coffee, tea, cream of wheat, all the while eating bananas, blueberries, and had boiled eggs.  Joey continues to sleep and avoids all light possible.  (When Joey finally gets up, he has probably a banana and calls it good)  HMMMMMM!!!  Anyway, we head off to the race a little over 6 am and get there at about 6:25 am.  We get to the race area and we are greeted with a native "ring dance" by a native of the Navajo tribe.  It was really quite amazing, actually!  Joey sees some running buddies he knows, introduces me, then they are off.  We are off and running.  I see Joey and his buddy leading in the front pack immediately and yell, "Go Joey" cause I know that will be the last I see of him for the next 8 hours or so.  So, I settle into my usual slow rhythm and smile and enjoy the day.

Taking my iPhone with me was a good choice because I immediately wanted to start taking photos.  I did take many during the day, which probably costed me maybe 10 minutes or so, no biggie for me though!  I'm glad I did take a lot because I got some good ones.  The first 5 miles or so was pretty sandy.  I said to myself, well, this is probably only bad this part, no big deal, I can deal with this!  Well, if you ever try running in deep sand uphill, you are in for a treat.  It is massively slow.  I immediately knew I was going to be walking up most uphills in deep sand.  It just takes too much effort to actually run in it.  So, now I knew that this was going to be a long day - just in the first 5 miles of this 34 mile adventure!  Call it good and go with it!  Yeah!

The sunrise is happening and the desert takes on a beautiful color.  We hit the first aid station and I take off my extra clothes I start with and pack them in my bag I have stored and I'm off!  We head to Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River.  This is an amazing site.  The view is stunning and the area where we are running is right along the cliffs for miles and miles and miles.  But, no sand!  Yeah!
It was wonderful, but you did have to look out where you were going for sure!  Amazing views surrounded you at every moment while you were running.  I had a hard time at NOT wanting to photograph, but knew that I couldn't take everything I wanted and just tried to take what was necessary.  The day was finally warming up a tad and it was going to be a beautiful one!  We headed into a kind of "no mans land" a little bit on top of the bend and  then we starting heading into Waterholes Canyon.  Ok, just getting down this steep canyon was just great!  (Hiking now starts here!)  Views of this ancient water filled canyon was remarkable, to say the very least!  Deep sand was everywhere.  Ladders were provided in areas where you had to hike up and continue into the canyon.  I loved every second of this!

After we got out of the canyon, we had to go up this hill, full of deep, deep sand.  This was a slow hike for me and I finally felt some twinging going on in my legs, so I decided to take real slow deliberate steps up the hill.  Stretch it out, stop, take some more electrolytes, no prob.  Next up, a long gradual downhill full with more (what?) deep sand.  Oh, yeah, deep sand......  Even though it was downhill, I still, amazingly, had to walk in a few areas believe it or not!  It was really deep.  I'm not kidding here.  I arrive at the previous aid station (mile 18) and I just have to take off my shoes and empty the sand from my shoes and socks.  The sand has now started to get on my last nerve!  After a brief mother nature call in a small tent they have provided, I'm off running back to the start area - but only after running up a hill through (what?) , again, deep sand.  Oh well......

Passing the start area we now had around a 13 mile loop around Page, AZ. on the Page Rim Trail, which to me, was the most runnable, and most enjoyable to run on.  The views were endless.  It seemed like I could look right into Monument Valley!  The red rock monuments were so never ending 360 degrees!  This Rim Trail was right up my alley because this is what I usually have trained on.  A bit of sand, lots of hard dirt, and rock ledges.  I loved this part, and quite honestly I held a decent gradual pace through these 13 miles - mostly running, with fits of a little bit of fast hiking.  Perfect!  Just as I thought the miles should be ending, they didn't.  I started to be a chore but quickly remembered that my daughter, Della, was running a Conference Meet 3000 M run at exactly the same time I was running this trail!  So, just thinking of that held off my thoughts of wanting to end my race for the day.  If she can finish, so can I!

After a very brief short hike down an rocky ledge,  I could hear people shouting at runners finishing their race.  I had a brief moment of "thanks to God and my Mom looking up in the sunlight", got a little chocked up, and sucked it up for the finish.  I didn't stop until I crossed.  And there was Joey taking my picture at the end.  Again, the feeling finishing of an Ultra Marathon is just astounding.  I will always cherish it - especially with friend.

Joey ran his race with blisters all over his feet and still finished 12th overall!  Out of 222 runners!  His time was like 5:35!  Mark my words, you will see Joey at the top of many leaderboards in the future!  I finished in the middle of the pack at 8:44.  The rest of the night was a celebration of true friendship over a couple of beers and a big dinner at the resort.  We were asleep by 9:15 pm.  What an outstanding day!  Perfect.

Here are some pics!

$100.00  donated to ALZ on 2/23/16