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Me, mile 50

Cuyamaca 100K Race Report – 2018

Here we go again. I’d put myself on the waiting list for this always sold out race sometime back in the spring. It seemed unlikely that my name would ever come up. I was a few weeks out from running Stagecoach 100 when I got the invite…
Stagecoach 100 Buckle

Lost in the Dark: Stagecoach 100 Race Report

Salida, Colorado I'd spent the week camping in near Monarch Pass, in the Sawatch range of Colorado, where only six weeks earlier I'd tried and failed at High Lonesome 100, dropping out angry, frightened, and miserable in the middle of a dark…
Me at unnamed pass
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Goat Rodeo: High Lonesome 100 Race Report

August 3, 2018, near Buena Vista, Colorado, in a field at the base of Mt. Princeton, 6am. This was the start of the second running of High Lonesome 100, up in the Sawatch Mountains of Colorado.It seemed the entire Southwest on fire. Smoke…
Cedro Peak singletrack
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More Songs About Cornbread and Jail

Harvoni treatment, month 1 My history with drugs is a colorful one. The colors are mostly shades of dark. For a very brief time, forty years ago, I was an iv drug user. It all ended a long time ago, I stopped shooting dope not long after…
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Hardrock 100, mile 89: KT Aid Station

In the counter-clockwise direction, KT is the next-to-last aid station before the finish. At mile 89, the runners have just come up Grants Swamp three miles earlier, a harrowing climb, and then descended via the Ice Lake Trail followed by an…
Field

Let’s Roll, Baby. Cuyamaca 100K Race Report

Green Valley campground, 3 miles from the start. Grilled sausage and beans, my camping meal of choice when I'm bacheloring it.The first time I came through here was 1984 in a Jack Brown Cleaners van that had been converted into the Big Boys…
Jemez Mountains

Jemez Mountain 50 Miler Race Report

The air in New Mexico is known for its clarity, and its light. This is a stark change from LA, where the marine layer creates an almost always present haze that traps the smog beneath it. And then there's the smoke from the fires burning in…
Me at Chantry

Whistling Past the Graveyard – AC100 2013 Race Report

Welcome to the 265th annual AC100.Friday August 2nd, at the Best Western pool just off the 15, on the edge of the high desert, facing the freeway. Traffic is loud. I'm pretending it's the ocean.The lady at the front desk has cleaned up pretty…
My feet, at Chantry, mile 75

AC100 2012 Race Report

Build upLooking through the last 6 months of entries into this blog, I see that almost all are about the build-up to this race. I'd trained long and hard, and made a lot of great new friends doing it. In the last 2 months, my doubt grew. …

Bishop High Sierra 100K Race Report

With a population of just under 4,000 people, Bishop is Inyo County's only city. (I have no idea what separates a city from a town under California state law). This was my first time up there. It's a beautiful little place along the 395…
Leona Divide 2012 Bib & Medal

Leona Divide 50 miler 2012

Leona Divide 50 miler. 9,000 feet of climbing, 40 miles of singletrack, 10 miles of fireroad, all rolling hills in the Sierra Pelona Mountains.My goal for Leona was to run skillfully. What does that mean, exactly? Well, I've run some pretty…
Cleveland National Forest

Old Goats 50 – Volunteer Report

125 runners. 60 volunteers. Ultrarunners are always highly appreciative of the aid stations and volunteers; on a long, hard race, for me at least, the tough parts are run aid station to aid station. I never realized the extent of the production…
Hilda Xicarra, tears of joy

Rocky Road 50 & 100 mile Endurance Run

Rocky Road 100 is held along horse trails in Coto de Caza, in Orange County. Originally intended as a counter to Texas' Rocky Racoon, with liberal cut-off times and an equally non technical course that combine to make it especially favorable…
My shoes, after the race

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…
Maggie Beach- Chantry - 10:45pm

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…