Bib #123
They’ve assigned bib numbers for AC100. My bib is #123. When I saw that, my heart started pounding. It became much more real than it was when they published the list of runners. I got nervous. There are a few people I know who seem to doubt that I can do this. I suspect that [...]
Chimera 2011 on film
Well, actually, mostly on video. 100K – 63 miles to us non scientist Americans – (a high school girlfriend’s grandparents in Oklahoma threatened to start a militia they were so outraged over President Jimmy Carter’s acquiesence to going commie by introducing the metric system back in the 70s. They hated Carter over the metric system, [...]
Griffith Park, Wednesday Morning
Wednesday morning, 8am. A 6 mile weekday trail run through Griffith Park. Single-track & hills, training for AC100
Desert: Calico 50K, Joshua Tree, Salvation Mountain.
I haven’t posted in a while. This site is about to undergo a major overhaul. I’ve gotten so dissatisfied with this presentation that I haven’t been feeling like adding any more to it. Of course, I’m tinkering far too much with the new design to ever get it finished, plus busy working on a bunch [...]
Christmas Morning
Christmas morning, Elysian Park. A 4 mile run with Kista while the turkey roasted in the oven. Beautiful morning, low 70s, lots of folks out walking their dogs, lots of dogs in new Christmas sweaters. Kids driving a pink Barbie SUV through the grass below.
Mt. Lukens, April Fog
Back in April I took my first run up Mt. Lukens with Maggie Beach and the gang, soon to become The Delicate Little Flowers trail running club. Here is a little chunk of video from that run.
Brasil 135
My friend and running partner Maggie Beach, who, you can see, is no slouch, has been accepted to run Brasil 135, a 135 mile footrace through the mountains of Brazil; inspired by, reputed to be as difficult as, and granting admission for the finishers to Badwater 135, the legendary run through Death Valley to Whitney [...]
Chimera 100
Cold, wet, rocky, and long. We gathered at the starting line, cold, foggy, looking more like refugees than runners. Race director Steve Harvey (who deserves great praise for all of his events) mercifully delayed the start by about 15 minutes so that it would be light when we set out for the initial loop, fun, [...]
Javelina Jundred
This weekend Kista Cook is running Javelina Jundred in Arizona. It’s her second 100 miler this year; Nanny Goat was the first. Like most runners, she’s camping at start. She says “You should see all the tents. Some are off the hook condos.” Her dad and her sister are crewing her, and their outifts have [...]
Mt. Lukens 3-peat.
46 miles. 11,650′ of climbing. 14 hours. This is one of those runs that ends up being really demoralizing. The original plan was a good strong charge up Mt. Lukens, repeat 2 more times. As we started, I just didn’t have it in me. The first loop – 14.25 miles, 7.12 and 3,641 feet of [...]
Chicken Farm
When I was 6 years old we moved out to a 20 acre spread in Springbank, a rural area west of Calgary, Alberta, towards the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The nearest kid my age was Billy Young, who lived about a mile away by field, or 2 miles by road. Billy was a strange [...]
Eaton Canyon
Mt. Wilson was kind of a home-away-from-home this summer. The Mt. Wilson Observatory, parking lot, and cafe at the top of Mt. Wilson will be closing in a few weeks, and won’t open again until April. We took another run up the tollroad this Sunday, lunch at the Cosmic Cafe and then back down. Baby [...]
Zen vs. Oblivion
I recently read someone describe himself as “an Ultra runner trying for Zen oblivion.” There seems to be this common misconception about Buddhist meditation as escapism – that it will somehow carry you away as if you were on some sort of cosmic high – completely apart from and oblivious to the world around you. [...]
Sierra Nevada Endurance Run
6:30 am, sunrise over the American River, a big, wide, and real river, unlike, say, the San Gabriel River down here in Angeles Forrest, which as much as I like soaking my feet in it during a good hot run would barely qualify as a mountain stream anywhere else. This is the river of Sutter’s [...]
Black and White
A year ago I was still running roads. An acquaintance of mine ran ultras. We became friends who became good friends who became even better friends, and, after a long time basically fighting it, we ended up lovers. She’s been at the center of my ultra running experience, brief as it thus far is. This [...]
Bob Holtel
Maggie and I took a run from Inspiration Point to to top of Mt. Baden Powell and back, part of the AC100 course, a little altitude and hill training for me, taking the opportunity to run and familiarize myself with the entire AC100 course, just in case…’Cause I intend to run this thing next year [...]
Idyllwild
I live in hills. These hills are pretty close to the center of LA, near Dodger Stadium, but they are hills. When I moved in here my only complaint (and it was a small one) was that my view, somewhat spectacular through the trees, (but there are enough trees around me to obscure it except [...]
Mount Disappointment 50K
Sat. August 13. This is said to be the toughest 50K in So. Cali. We started at the top of Mt. Wilson, headed down, up down, up, down, up… 7,403 feet of climbing says my Garmin. Probably a dozen stream crossings. Long exposed climbs. Because AC100 had traditionally been held in September, and because the [...]
Mt. Disappointment Test Runs #2 & #3
I’d run the Mt. Disappointment training run a few weeks back, crashed at about the 3 mile mark, and did the rest in pain. I decided to have another go at it. Not knowing what she was getting into, Kista joined me. The climb up back up Mt. Wilson on Kenyon Devore trail was more [...]
AC100
Angeles Crest 100. 100 miles through Angeles Forest and the San Gabriel Mountains, starting at Wrightwood and finishing in town in Alta Dena, almost all trail, often technical, 23,000 feet of up and 26,000 feet of down, lots of the run at not insignificant altitude…and in heat… I was crewing friend and running partner Maggie [...]
Western States 100
Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. Perspective makes a difference. Some people never recovered from the snow and ice. Others, like Maggie, cite it as a favorite part of the race, although it seems Maggie fell as often as anyone, and came away from some nasty ice bruises. She found a comedy in the spills, [...]
Mt. Disappointment Training Run
Mt. Disappointment Training Run. Down Mt. WIlson road, a turn onto some singletrack, down to Redbox Rincon Road to Westfork and then up Kenyon Devore to Mt. Wilson. 15.5 miles, 3,800′ of climbing. And pretty much a disaster…or at least that was my perception at the moment. At about 3.5 miles in I did a [...]
Kista and the Twins, Mt. Wilson Twice
Angeles Forest. The idea was to head down a singletrack that I’ll be following during Mt. D. but Kista & I could’t find access to the trail (and anyhow, it’s all overgrown with poodle dog bush) and took the fireroad down instead. Hot, no shade, amazing smells, 3,000 feet down, and then we reached the [...]
Mt. Wilson
I have two friends running Western States this weekend: Maggie Beach & Sheri Okamamoto. Kista & I will be driving up to Auburn early Sat am to cheer them as they finish. This year there’ve been record snows up in Squaw Valley. Folks on the Ultralist report that locals cannot remember there having ever been [...]
