You would not believe how dark it can get at 5am in the woods, which is when the Boulder Field 100K starts in Hickory Run State Park. We’re talking pitch black outside. It’s so dark that not only can you see the stars in the sky, but you can see the stars behind the stars.…
2017 Eastern States 100 Race Report
Easier doesn’t mean easy. The cooler temperatures just about doubled the finisher rate (59% vs. 34%), however it didn’t feel that much easier that last year. The website has an overly detailed course description, however it does a poor job of adequately explaining how difficult the trails are (i.e. there are exactly 3 runnable sections…
2017 Old Dominion 100 Mile Race Report
Similar to my Umstead race report, I’m going to start with a brief overview of the race for the undecideds or merely curious. My (overly) detailed race report that follows will be of interest for those who are planning to run the race and my family/friends. What OD100 Has to Offer Historic. This is the 2nd…
2017 Umstead 100 Mile Race Report
There are 3 different types of people who are going to read this post. The first are people who are thinking about signing up for this race. The second are those that have signed up and want to know more about it. The third group are those that are interested in how I did personally. …
2017 Naked Bavarian 40 Mile Race Report
I’m driving over to the race start Saturday morning watching the outside temperature drop from 20 degrees to 17 to 15 degrees. I was giving my wife who was running the 20 mile race the play-by-play, but I don’t think she was enjoying it too much. Needless to say, there wasn’t much socializing before the…
2017 Phunt 50K Race Report
I really need to stop setting time goals for myself. I had gotten it into my mind that this was a race that I could PR despite the facts that I’m now 2 years older than I was back then and logging fewer miles (366 miles over past 10 weeks vs. 455) these days. So…
2016 Fast and Furriest 5k Race Report
I think I’ve finally figured out the 13 stages of running 5Ks: Stage 1 (Mile 0.00-0.25): Oh boy am I running fast. This is fun. Stage 2 (Mile 0.25-0.50): Oh boy am I running fast. I wonder how long I can keep this pace up. Stage 3 (Mile 0.50-0.75): Oh boy. I think I might be running too…
2016 Cloudsplitter 100 Race Report
I need to start with how absolutely gorgeous the course was. I picked this race because they had some pretty pictures on their website and if anything, they undersold how beautiful the trails and scenery is. The first five miles are all uphill in woods, however once you got up on top of the ridge, you…
Eastern States 100: Odds and Ends
You would think I a 3100 word race report would be enough to cover all the details of a race. Normally, it would however there were many things that I ended up leaving out. In no particular order: Race organization. I can’t say enough about how well run this race was. The aid stations were…
Eastern States 100 Mile Race Report
Hard. So hard. I don’t have the eloquence to properly describe the difficulty of this race. Yes, there was a lot of vertical gain/loss over the 102.9 miles. Yes, it was hot (90s) and humid. And yes, the trails were highly technical even for Rocksylvania. The latter is what really took me by surprise. I…