Just a quick note to forward something to the brothers cause I feel like I’ve been living on the periphery, and not being very accessible or maintaining much contact with the PB’s.

I also need the crew to know that I have in fact been training for KS.

Last weekend, while Maverick was nearly killing himself at the Summer Solstice Sugar Mountain 5K, I was participating in an event that he and I did together last year, The Barkley Book Fair.

This is a nighttime trail run put on by the TATURS. It’s a pretty cool deal. The daytime version starts at 6:30 pm followed by the night version when the sun goes down.

The race director places books at selected locations on the course. As you locate the book on the course, if you stay on course, you tear the page out of the book that corresponds with your bib number, to prove that you were at that “checkpoint”.

The darkness and weather can present unique problems, as well as the terrain. Last year Mav and I got lost and quickly went from the lead to last place in only a few minutes and unlocateable checkpoints. As a result we both left the event wet, muddy and wounded from the obstacles on the course. In fact as we went to breakfast at 3 in the morning folks asked if we had been in a car accident. In the end I handily garnered the award for “Best Booboo”, thanks to bleeding legs from our struggles with a run of briars as well as a unique fall, only to be rescued by Mav. This year, I did the event with Jon Rahhal, a friend of mine. We stayed on course and as a result finished significantly higher in the standings. However, the trip did have it’s own moments of peril, and yours truly was, as you might expect, right in the middle of it!

After the lead group got off track and then eventually caught up with us, we ran as a group through a fair amount of the course. At one particular point “we” missed a marker and headed up a nearly vertical climb. The RD has a knack for running you up inclines that make feel like you would rather die than climb. (this was taken during the daylight run, imagine how much fun this is in the dark!)

We finally decided that we had to question our direction and asked some of the folks below us to check for missed markers. They did locate the correct marker and as the 5-6 of us ahead began our descent, the handhold I was relying on gave way and I began to fall a distance down the rock. A boulder leaning against my handhold, managed to dislodge and fall at a slightly greater speed than I. The result, one big ass rock landing on my head before I came to a stop on the ledge (I figure that’s a good thing). I was a little loopy for the remainder of the course, but as we all know, that is often nothing out of the norm.

Although I did for two years in a row win the “Best Booboo” award, I would strongly suggest this event for the proverbial “must do” list.

Later!

Brother Big

Here is the official race report from Brother Maverick. It is a great read.

SJS50 Race Report

Several pics, not so many words…

Portrait of a mountain man

Up on the ridge (well one of the ridges)

This is the terrain Mav dealt with.

And the damage done

This is the third year in a row Mav has done this race. It is billed as the toughest 50 mile course in the US. Each time he has run slower. Go figure. T3 can attest to the fact that Mav was as well trained for this effort as he has ever been. Running is funny that way though. It always humbles you. On the phone a few minutes ago, Mav was obviously very tired, a little emotional, but very talkative.

Ok, a lot talkative. He talked about the early stream crossings that took forever. He talked about his quads already being shaky by the 1st aid station. He talked about how going downhill became progressively more painful until by the mid-point of the race it was difficult to even step down. He talked about duct taping his heels, blisters on his toes, chasing cut-offs, and snow fields that went on for miles. He talked about talking to the rest of the Pirañas as he ran, motivating us as a way to motivate himself (btw, talking to himself is not a new thing for Mav, he does it fairly often actually.)

He talked about his nephew, Rain Landrey, who ran up the trail a couple of miles to pace Mav for the final 2 miles. He talked about how Rain ran with him and talked to him and kept him going, and how much that helped, and how much it meant to him.

He talked about telling the lady at the finish line who judges people’s feet for the “worst feet” award (which Mav has won twice) that he wasn’t taking his shoes off and that she could give the award to someone else no matter what his feet looked like (he still hadn’t looked when he called.)

He got choked up when he talked about it being the hardest race he had ever done, and how he wanted to quit, but wouldn’t. How he decided up on the mountain that if he missed the cut-off he was going to get some sleep and then leave for home. Then he talked about how he was looking forward to spending tomorrow with his family and letting them know how much he appreciated their effort.

He talked about being proud to have survived and completed the race under the cut-off: 15:54, six minutes to spare.

Mav, the Pirañas are very proud of you. Well done brother.

Mav made the Slumgullion Aid Station with 20 minutes to spare! Earlier he had the race crew radio down that he was coming, just slowly. We were all worried that something had happened, like a fall or an injury. When he came into the aid station he was tired and having quad troubles, plus a blister. But overall he was feeling good and ready to finish this thing. Somehow the Piraña camera got switched to video, so this pic is a still frame from some video that got taken. It is a little grainy, but you can clearly see Mav coming down the hill into the aid station.

What you can’t see is how much he is hobbling as he makes his way downhill. Having run hundreds of miles with Mav, the Pirañas were shocked to see him in this condition. We know he will finish though, even if he has to crawl. We are waiting on news of his finish!

Here are a couple of shots of just one of several water crossings Mav had to negotiate. Notice the white water. Notice the rope. Notice the line of people waiting. Imagine how wet Mav is. Mav is crazy, but we love him anyway.

Mav made the first aid station on Williams Creek around 9:30. He had 7 water crossings, with ropes to keep from being swept into Williams Creek. He was delayed at several of the crossings as people had to line up and go one-at-a-time. He also had to cross a deep field of snow.

Coming into Williams Creek Aid Station
(man those colors look good!)

And he is outta there!

Here is a picture of the Alpine Gulch trailhead. Notice the sign about the lynx. There have also been brown bears spotted along the course route.

And here is a picture of Mav and his dad (who along with his daughter will be Mav’s crew.)

The rest of the Pirañas wish there were there too!

Mav is the first to use the new Piraña camera to record his efforts this weekend. The Pirañas are a little hard on camera equipment. We tend to haul our cameras in and out of vehicles; expose them to the rain, dirt and sweat of the trail and road; drop, smash and dip them in various fluids; you get the point. So you can imagine how excited we were to find out in a recent addition of Outside magazine that Olympus had come out with a new camera, the 1030 SW. This 10 megapixel, crush proof (to 220 pounds), water proof (to 33 ft.), drop proof (from 6.5 ft.), and freeze proof wonder is just the thing for the Pirañas to take on their adventures! After picking up the camera (and before Mav took it with him to Lake City) T3 stuck it in the pool and took this picture:

So, hopefully we will get some cool shots of Mav on course this weekend.

Mav is in Lake City and has already started checking out the course. Basically the course circles the lake up on the ridge:

Mav has already gone to the first stream crossing to check out the trail condition and the water:

This point is about 3 miles into the run. Looks like Mav is going to be wet early and often!