What Makes me Think I can do the LAVS?

Google Map from this year's race.
(RIP symbols indicate where runners dropped out of the race.)

What makes me think it is remotely possible for me - a guy who's never run longer than 50 miles - to go 314 miles across five southern states in July heat? Before I say anything else I have to acknowledge that the bottom-line answer is that I don't know whether I can - and what that says to me is, "Go find out."

That's my genetic defect.

It's Official - I'm Insane

Image (appropriately) lifted from Psyche Wimberly's blog:
"Run Like Ya Stole Sumthin'"

Imagine this:

You're out running with a good friend who happens to be a pretty experienced ultrarunner with some tough races on his resume: Massanutten, Arrowhead 135, Badwater, and a bunch more - over 60 ultras in all. Last year he managed to gain entry into the fabled Barkley Marathons, but was unable to finish.

As you run with this friend, you of course talk about ultrarunning. As it happens, another race cooked up in the imagination of the Barkley race director, the Last Annual Vol State Road Race (LAVS), is happening while you're running. Your friend ventures the opinion that the Barkley and the LAVS are the two toughest races in America.

You're an ultrarunner too, but one with just a few races to his credit. What do you do?

1. Say, "Whoa!" with a sense of awe and wonderment in your voice, and keep running.
2. Think to yourself, "It's so great there's no end of challenging goal races out there for me when I'm ready for them."
3. Sign up for the 2014 LAVS as soon as they start compiling the list of entrants (which was yesterday, BTW).

If you chose #1 or #2 you are a sane person. I picked #3.

2013 Strolling Jim 40M Run

I was just about to click the buckle of my seat belt closed when I heard the loud 'bong' that heralds an announcement from the cockpit: "This is the captain, folks. I'm sorry to announce that we have a maintenance problem. We thought we could get it corrected, but unfortunately we haven't been able to. It is a safety-related issue and we cannot operate this airplane. We're sorry for having boarded you, but we're going to have to ask you to deplane. This flight is canceled."

It was 23 hours until the start of the Strolling Jim 40M Run in Wartrace, TN (about an hour southeast of Nashville) and I was now stuck on the ground at my starting point in Syracuse, NY. This had just become a longer endurance event than I had planned on.

The Return

Hard to believe how long it's been since I've posted anything. Pretty poor excuse for a blogger, I guess. The thing is I tend to 'go dark' about my running when things aren't going so well, and then pop back up when the hard work of getting it back under control is well along and I'm feeling better about my running future again.

So what happened? Where have I been? What am I doing? For anyone who cares to know these things, details below.

2012 Mendon Ponds 50K

Photo credit: Richard Detweiler

A Year of Running - Epilogue

What a difference a year can make.

Mendon Ponds 2011 was my second ultra. I'd come to ultramarathons in the way quite a few people do these days... clueless. Oh I suppose a lot of ultra noobs have at least some running and racing experience. Some have a lot. But the publication of Dean Karnazes' popular book, "Ultramarathon Man" and of Christopher McDougall's, "Born to Run," convinced more than a few knuckleheads like me with little real running experience that we should run extreme long distance races.

On trails.

No, really.

Little things mean a lot to me...

When you’re not fast and increasingly suspect you’re not going to be, you take pleasure in other small victories.

I sat cross-legged yesterday.

Seasons of Running

Through the miracle of the internet I’m connected with runners all over the world. Runners live in places that collectively span the full range of climate options this planet Earth has to offer. Each year, as the seasons change, we connect with each other and variously brag and complain about the new weather we are faced with as we pursue our passion for putting one foot in front of the other.