Chasing a DNF

This race was a turning point for me. When I crossed the finish line I had run the last of my quadruple header of race weekends. I had run more races than I had left to run this year, and I had put more miles to foot than I had left for the year. It was a nice feeling, but at the same time bitter sweet. Well, actually at the time I crossed the finish line it was nothing but a nice feeling, and not bitter sweet at all. My legs and lungs were on fire from the altitude, or stacking races up for a month, I'm not sure which. But I was glad to be done and chow down some of the chili being cooked in two vats and stirred with a kayak paddle. That was great form. Full disclosure: This punk ran the half, not the full. The race takes place in Orem, Utah, running on fire break roads and single track in and around the portion of Provo Canyon that calls Mount Timpanogos State Park home. Check-in occurred at the pavilion, and the race start was a just a short distance away on the fire break

The third race in my four weekends in a row of races is in the books. Southern Discomfort and I ran the Glacier Ridge 30k Trail Race yesterday, and the course is a beautiful one.   Glacier Ridge Trail Marker, Moraine State Park Before I go any further with this post I'd like to acknowledge how amazing my wife is. The race had an 8:00 AM start, so we arrived around 7:00 AM. My wife joined us so that she could take pictures of us at the start/finish, and along the course. Because that isn't enough, she also volunteered from 3:00PM - 8:00PM, which included handing out finisher medals to 50k and 50 mile runners, making sure runners had water and food, and even began a rescue mission to find a missing runner (turns out the runner was OK). She was there for over 13 hours, on her feet most the time (because she felt that sitting would be insulting to people that just ran 18-50 miles), and helping everyone out. Not to mention seeing her smiling face waiting for me from time to t

I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I have been looking forward to the Greenwood Furnace Trail Challenge more than any other race I have scheduled this year. I signed up for it at the start of this crazy sign-up-for-every-race-because-you-aren't-doing-shit-that-weekend spree I went on. I don't claim to be a physiologist, but I have come to the conclusion that its takes way less muscle groups to sign up for a race than it does to run said race. Go figure. Oh well, what can you do? I mean, you could not sign up for four races in a row, but then where is the fun in that? So it was that I ran the Greenwood Furnace Trail Challenge the weekend after the Zion Half Marathon which you can read about  here . The picture is self explanatory, you don't need this caption, move along. I will say part of the appeal may have been my brief obsession with iron furnaces in the state when I first moved here in 2009. I thought they were pretty darn gnarly and the Commander and I

As a geologist, there is something pretty damn cool about being in a desert, walking, running, and hiking on rocks that formed in a desert 180 million years ago. That's the trip that is Zion National Park.  The Commander and I were there for the Vacation Race Series Zion Half Marathon, and we spent a couple extra days hiking the park. Here is how it all went down. We are in a desert. These rocks were deposited in a desert 180mya. That's deep (metaphysically speaking). We had a bit of a snafu right off the bat. My personal assistant screwed up by booking a late arriving flight the day before the race. The problem is that the closest airport is in Las Vegas, NV, which is an hour behind Utah and two hours away on top of it. As a result there was no way we were going to make it to the race expo to pick up our race packets before they closed. Luckily, our buddy Silver was there and after haggling with the volunteers, acquired said packets and saved the day. Side note, I fired