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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Nanny Goat 2011
Nanny Goat 12hr: 60 miles 7th place overall. Nanny Goat 12/24/100 is run on a 1 mile loop run around a ranch in Riverside It’s a timed race: 12 hours, 24 hours, and, this year, an official 100 miler. I ran the 12 hour race. This would be my second post-50 miler, the first (and [...]
Leona Divide 50 miler
Kista and I headed out to Leona Divide to cheer on our friends who were running. Chris Quesada, who is one of my running partners, had finished his 30K and twisted his ankle, which is a bummer. He still managed to finish 11th. Drew had pulled out of the 30K with a hamstring injury. Maggie [...]
Wild Wild West Marathon & 50K – 2011
Don’t follow me, I’m lost too. It’s never a good sign when the runner you are following ends up on the edge of a cliff, calling out “Hello? Hello? Is anybody out there?” Traversing the Eastern Sierras, running along the base of Mount Whitney and not that far from the edge of Death Valley, Wild [...]
Ragnar Relay
Ragnar Relay, Socal. 12 runners, 2 vans, 229 miles, Huntington Beach to San Diego. We assembled Friday morning at 6:30 am and drove down to Huntington Beach to check in and start painting our vans. On the way we discovered things like our #12 slot runner who had the longest run at 26 miles had [...]
Desert Dash Malibu Double Half Marathon
Two half marathons on one day, on a single track section of the Backbone Trail, up in Malibu. Technical single-track, with 2500′ of climbing for each run. The first race began at 10 am. The second began at 6pm and was run in the dark. We parked down near PCH and Malibu Canyon Road and [...]
Calico 50K
2 weeks before the race, my friend Kista suggested I run Calico with her. I said yes. It would be my first 50K, just as it was her first 5 years ago. I loved it. It was, for me, the best 50K I could’ve picked for my first. Yes, the trail was brutal and gave [...]
LA Rock’n'Roll Half Marathon
I couldn’t run this inaugural event, so I got up early, headed down to the corner of Sunset & Logan in Echo Park, took photos (a gallery of which can be seen here) and cheered. It was fun. The course surrounded my neighborhood, I’ve run almost all of it and run significant chunks of it [...]
Valley Crest Half Marathon
Valley Crest Half Marathon June 13. Somewhere on the first long climb back up, at about the 4 1/2 mile mark, I tripped over something and did a face plant. This resulted in a decent amount of blood and a bit of hurt. There was a moment while running – I was covered in dirt [...]
San Diego Rock’n'Roll Marathon
Immediate post race notes: 1). I really did not think it was going to be this hot. I reckoned the marine layer would be the same as in LA. I wore the wrong shirt, left my hat behind, and didn’t have on any sunblock. Dumb, dumber, dumberer. 2). How is it I can do a [...]
Honk 4 Juan
Juan is running his first marathon. He’s little-kid-at-Christmas excited. He’s not sure where to get his bib or what to do. He’s come with a whole crew of family, and they are staying at the same hotel as I am. I give him directions to the expo. I walk up to the starting line, about [...]
Valley Crest Half Marathon, training run
A friend is running the Valley Crest Half Marathon on June 13. This will be her first half marathon, so we decided to do a training run on the race course today, up in the Topanga Hills. It’s not a mountain ultra, but it’s a helluva lot hillier and rougher than any of my normal [...]
LA Marathon Elite Women
The LA Marathon has a battle-of-the-sexes challenge. The first man or woman to cross the finish line wins a $100,000 challenge bonus. The women get a head start of 18 minutes 47 seconds, a handicap calculated by comparing the average times of top runners of each gender. In six previous challenges, the men and women [...]
Julia Mallon
I love this photo for the obvious reasons: the juxtaposition of the powerful, beautiful runner on the right and the man in the wheel chair looking over his shoulder at her as he passes behind her in the opposite direction. He’s not an LA Marathon spectator but someone going about his business on the sidewalk. [...]
LA Marathon
I expected it would be challenging. I expected I would be exhausted and hurt all over. I had worries about 26.2 miles since the furthest I’d ever run was 20 miles, twice, and the second was not so much fun. I devised the usual plans to trick myself into not psyching myself out. The first [...]
Pasadena Half Marathon
The idea, originally, was that I was going to run a marathon before I turned 50. And that was it. Eventually, though, I remembered how much I loved to run, and it became about much more than a simple, single accomplishment. Around the time I realized that, my friend Buck said she was going to [...]
