Running Stories

 Welcome to 2010 everyone.  Every year New Years day means one thing for me - Test of Metal registration.  Sign in late and you will miss out.  This year The Test sold out in 24 minutes and I was lucky enough to register for my 5th year in a row.  Last year I was able to beat my previous personal best by over 30 minutes and finished in 3:28 - that is a high bar for me to beat this year.

I hope everyone gets to participate in the events that they would like to, no matter how big or small.  

Graham Archer.

I'm very glad I ran in the New Years Day Fat Ass 50 and Freeze Your Fat Ass Off Swim (minus the swim as usual). I'm also glad that I didn't get really sick from doing it. It's been a long standing question of mine whether you should run when you're sick or stay at home and hide under the covers. Having had my heart set for a long time on a great start to the new year I decided to brave the elements.

My idea of a good start to the New Year includes running 50km.  Doing anything less among our ultra friends always makes me feel like a couch potato. 

Now, there are good reasons to opt out of a full 50km on New Year's Day:

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Vancouver this year for the New Year's Day run and get 2010 started off in that way - but it didn't mean I couldn't run :)

The next best thing is running with my local group, the St. Louis Ultrarunner's Group (S.L.U.G.'s). They are a great bunch and had planned  a run at Hawn State Park near Ste. Genevieve, MO. It's a trail I had never run, so I thought it was an opportunity I must take.

Enjoy Action Jackson's movie from our Pure Satisfaction run:

The most popular run in Switzerland took part yesterday in Geneva.

Around 27'000 persons ran it (it's not the Sun run, but compare to Swiss population is not bad) from 6 years old till 89yo.

It's a pretty fun run and short one (4,8km for women and 7.3km for men), which egals with a fast run. Usually after the run we all say "Oh my God, I ran it too fast" but the atmosphere is so great that you forget about the pain!

At the 6:00am start there were several SLUG's ready to throw down with Green Rock trail. In my opinion, it's one of the more difficult trails in the St. Louis area. Green Rock is named as such because it's a 10-mile point-to-point trail that connects Greensfelder Park in Eureka, MO northward to Rockwoods Reservation in Wildwood, MO. The terrain is difficult, but the positive is that the weather was supposed to be clear and cool with a high of 40 degrees F.

A little ditty to remember the day by.

Yes, the rumors are true.