Running Stories

Berryman Trail 50m is a race that has intimidated me a bit since I learned about it. For one, it’s FIFTY miles – that’s intimidating enough! Secondly, it’s shares a portion of the Ozark Trail 100 course, so I’m pretty familiar with the terrain. It’s all technical single track and usually several creek crossings with major mud.

The Marathon Shuffle on the Sunshine Coast Trail has a long history in our house.  ActionJackson is intimately familiar with it, having attempted to run the trail in its entire length - 180km - in 2003 and again in 2004.  This story has been featured in Shay Wilson and Angus McLellan's documentary, XS-NRG and if you can make the next screening, I can highly recommend it.

When I think of personal athletic turning points, one jumps to the top of the list.   I am one of the few people you might know who has run themselves to death... and lived to tell the tale.

Friends and fellow runners, I don't recommend you follow my example of being a dumb-ass about how you approach your races.  This is a true story, however, and I share it to the best of my recollection.

WRT a recent review of a running book (Born to Run), I belong to a book club.  For the upcoming book club meeting, each member of the club is supposed to write a little story about a "turning point" in their lives. 

 The “Double Chubb” 50k is named as such because it’s a double out and back on an 8(ish)-mile long trail. On each end, there are some very big hills & a lot of technical terrain, particularly on the West Tyson County Park side of the course.

[I've re-posted this so it shows up in my Blog on CFA - I didn't do that correctly the first time around, sorry!]

[thanks very much to Sybille for helping me figure out how to add pix!]

I packed my bags during Friday's howling windstorm and amidst stories of power outages, canceled ferries and closed roads.   While I was looking forward to the run, sailing to Vancouver Island through high waves was very low on the list of my favorite things to do... 

The Howard L. Aslinger Foundation Endurance Week-end 24-12-1 Hour Run/Walk:

This was a 1st year event held in memory of Howard L. Aslinger. Mr. Aslinger contracted polio at the young age of 11 and spent the rest of his life in a wheel chair. However, he never let the “inconvenience” that he believed polio to be get in the way of some amazing leadership and successes he worked hard to achieve throughout his life, which ended in 2009. It’s evident in the attitudes of Mr. Aslinger’s family how much he positively impacted the lives of others. What a great backdrop for an event that would test my legs & heart/determination to the MAX.

I signed up for the 24hr option with a goal in mind to get to 100 miles. It’s a 1-mile flat & paved course through Arena Park in Cape Girardeau, MO. The race began at 7pm on Friday the 19th (March) and concluded at 7pm on Saturday the 20th.

I had three main objectives in this race:

1) Raise money for Girls on the Run St. Louis – which I did, more than $1,200!!!
2) Cover 100 miles for the Girls (especially the SUPERSTARS at Griffith Elementary in Ferguson, MO)
3) Get the “monkey off my back” after my DNF at Ozark Trail 100 last November

It was comforting to know there would be some familiar faces on the course with me in terms of fellow runners. Several St. Louis Ultrarunners Group members were participating and helping out during the event – it was an AWESOME SLUGs turnout!
 

SFU is a location for the Relay for Life fundraiser for the Canadain Cancer Society this March 19th 7pm - March 20th 7am. Excitingly, I have received approval to be a "Team of One", i.e., complete the 12-hour SOLO.  If anyone would like to support my efforts to fundraise for the Canadian Cancer Society through the Relay for life that would be great! If anyone also wants to fundraise and complete the event SOLO you can contact the SFURelay organizer via email, she would be excited to hear from you. And oh, this will be my first attempt at running for 12-hours!