The Piraña Brothers did the DanMan today. The DanMan is a test of physical and mental endurance which takes place on Dan Little’s ranch in Madill, Oklahoma. The DanMan Run is held in honor of our own endurance running hero, Dan Little. Dan has completed over 120 endurance events consisting of marathons, over twenty 50-mile races, and three Iron Distance Triathlons. As witnessed by Dan’s accomplishments, endurance events test your physical ability, but more than that, they test your mental ability. The DanMan is designed for all runners to experience this test of mental endurance.
Team Piraña left OKC in the dark of the early morning after meeting up at Panera Bread on the NW Expressway. Panera was not open, but they graciously allowed the team to use their parking lot (ok, they didn’t even ask.) Of course, Big was late and had failed to fill-up before he left, so in addition to getting started late, Big had to stop for gas before the first scheduled potty break in Paul’s Valley.
Once the team arrived at the Oteka D Ranch they got a premo parking spot along the race course as it exited from the ranch yard proper.
Of course, Mav had to take some of his clothes off almost the moment the team arrived. The Brothers got their stuff arranged and then gathered for a group pic on the deck where they had secured the Pirana flag.
After checking to make sure they were all on the board with correct distances:
Mav – 50 miles
McLuvin – 50K (30 miles, his first attempt at ultra distance)
T3 – marathon
Mac – half marathon+
Sweet Tee – half marathon+
Weeble – as far as he could go or a half marathon
Big – injured, intended to ride mountain bike as morale support
the team gathered at the start line (in the front of course)
That is Dan Little on the right with the team!
The TATURS were there too!
After some simple instructions (which Mav ignored, more later) the race was on and the brothers were off. Dan’s ranch is a rolling spread with several lakes, lots of trees and about 16 miles of trails in 3 loops.
Since everyone was doing at least a half marathon the team decided to run the first 6.2 mile loop together. That of course lasted about 2 miles. Sweet Tee jetted off to catch some kid (he was worried the kid would beat him in the half, but the kid was only doing 10K). McLuvin needed to start slow and slow down, so he fell back. For a while Mav, Mac, Weeble and T3 stayed together:
(T3 was taking the pic…)
By the end of the first lap, Sweet Tee was way in front, T3 and Mac were in the middle, Weeble ended up having a bad day and Mav stayed with him, and McLuvin was bringing up the rear. Sweet Tee went out for his 2nd lap (6.9 miles) and Mac and T3 followed him shortly. That is where things started getting weird.
The second loop followed a pipeline being laid across Dan’s property. Everyone but Mav and McLuvin made the first turn where the course left the pipeline and did about a 3 mile loop before crossing the pipeline again. Mav missed several signs and kept running the pipeline and cut at least 2+ miles off the course. Soon, Sweet Tee ran up on them (which suprised him as he was pretty sure he was in front.) Meanwhile, T3 and Mac came in at around 2:10 thinking they would have to wait for Mav and McLuvin. They were also suprised to find all of their companions already at the ranch.
T3 and Mav went back out for the second half of the marathon and decided to run the course backwards (reverse direction and reverse order of the loops) so they ran back along the route T3 and Mac had just come in from and soon Mav was able to see the error of his way. All this time, Mav has been griping about how he moved a sign and probably caused everyone else to go the wrong way too, but when he saw what he had done, it turns out that people missed the turn on their own and his sign tampering had no impact at all.
In a very rare twist, Mav fell off the pace and T3 ended up coming in from the third lap fairly far in front. Having only a 10K left he refueled and split, knowing that Mav would be grinding out more than 5 times that distance.
The rest of the brothers failed to see where T3 went, and then sent Mav in the wrong direction to follow. T3 finished and everyone expected Mav to come in shortly behind. They waited. He didn’t show. They ate.
He didn’t show. They cheered other runners across the line. Mav didn’t show.
Getting worried, since Mav had left for his 4th loop without water or a shirt, Sweet Tee offered to run the reverse direction, find him, and run him in. Off he went. The problem was that Mav had not simply run the loop in the direction he left. He doubled back, changed trails, ran somewhere else, etc. So when neither Sweet Tee or Mav showed up the Brothers started sending out search parties. The first foray resulting in nobody found. So a second search was started with two different vehicles.
About that time Mav showed up all sweaty and proud. He recounted where he had been and the mileage he had wracked up. Then one of the search parties showed up with Sweet Tee. He had continued to run the loop backwards looking for Mav and had managed to rack up another 6+ miles on top of his 13.1.
All is well that ends well, but the Piranas learned to never try to find Mav on a run. Overall the Team did well:
Mav – 37 miles, 5:45
McLuvin – 31.5 miles, 8:47
T3 – Marathon, 4:25
Mac – Half, 2:11
Sweet Tee – Half, 1:41 (then another 6+ for almost 20 for the day)
Weeble – around 11, 1:57
A special congrats to PIT McLuvin on successfully completing his first ultra distance. Midway through the run he took a short break to ice his legs, but his spirits were high and his mood was good. He maintained a steady pace and a great attitude throughout the entire run.
Team Pirana will be back next year for more great trail running, good friends, great food and the fabulous hospitality of Dan Little.