Blogs

I put in another 24-length training day at Kits Pool today, in preparing for a complete trashing of Ean "Mako Shark" Jackson's cute little white butt.

 

The Atacama Crossing is a six-stage, 250-kilometer footrace. The six stages range from 20-80 kilometers over the seven days.

My buddy Wade Repta is running in it.  You might even know Wade, as he's a Club Fat Ass member who comes out fairly frequently to events around Vancouver.  He's doing the whole thing solo.  Basically, you run across Chile.  It's the dryest place on earth.  What a stud Wade is!

Wade is a sandbagger.  He will always say, "Naw, haven't been training much", but I think he has been training really hard for this one and as of today, the 3rd day, he's in 12th place overall! Man, I wish I was there at least crewing for him.  This event looks like a lot of fun.  (See photos on the event site.  That's where I got these.)

Wader, brother Dom and Paul Kennedy did the Marathon des Sables a couple years back, so he knows what he's up against.  Their slide show of Marathon des Sables (especially the feet pictures) convinced me that races like this are for a special breed of person.  Wade is sure that. 

 

The Knee Knackering North Shore Trail run was my second ultramarathon run, my first trail run and my first exposure to running in British Columbia.  

-Successfully completed American River 50 mile and simultaneously qualified for Western States. (that's next year's contest!)

-Have volunteered or (partially) run at CFA events (Fat Ass 50, Mtn Highway Madness, Vancouver 100, the Enduro, XTC, Run to the Clouds)

-Have yet to run a sub 4:00 marathon (hmmm, entry fees, mortgage payment, entry fees, mortgage payment)

-Have yet to do 60 days of Bikrams, mebbe I'll save it for the fall, when it's a little cooler.

So far, having managed to keep pretty much on track with the 10-12 hours a week,three or four sessions a week of 3 hours will do it.(I work split shifts for only 3.5 days a week)

Where has the time gone? 2006 is now half-over!

Well the race kicked off at 6am on time.  We had 4 runners one which included myself.  It was a small but hardy group of runners.  We talked and ran and had a good time.  Instead of having 4 aid stations with this group I used two vehicles to stay near the runners and give aid.  Special thanks to my wife and son, Michele and Bradley, who crewed for all of us and did a outstanding job.  Mike Wolfe ran very well and basically moved to the front and stayed out there the whole way.  The rest of us basically ran together for most of the run.  We had tons of food for everyone and still have left overs.  Dan Probst ran solid as well as our furthest guest Butch.  We had good fun and made some new friends.  Thanks to the club and all the runners who came out to run with us.

So, 48 days to go! I'm so excited already, I had to take a swim to calm down after the run.