Winnsboro LA
New day, new adventure.
First stop, Houston. Next up, Jackson. Nothing direct to Mississippi. Who knew?
Riverboat Series. Louisiana to Illinois, states hugging the mighty Mississipp’.
Rental car prep at Kroger. Water, cans of sweet tea, combo pack of Takis and… pouches of Gerber. Yep, oatmeal blueberry banana. Healthy to digest, easy on the stomach. One lasting effect of stomach cancer & chemo — your boy has a sensitive stomach.
2 hour drive to Winnsboro LA. Registration, bib pickup, pasta dinner.
And… another request to upgrade.
No marathon folks, 50K every day. Only 7 this time 💪
Welcome to Riverboat
3 minutes. 180 seconds.
Brief amount of time that cut my Fruita experience short. Overall, beautiful rugged course on Colorado’s Western Slope. Miles & miles of climb, high alpine desert. Strong mountain bike/rock climbing community. Colorado’s version of Moab 🚴
Took off slow, power-hiked in a conga-line of runners UP UP UP. Over 9k elevation.
Stomach wonky. First Colorado trail of 2024, little/no altitude training… felt a bit flatlander. Ate light, hydrated often. Pushed/worked thru the nausea. 8-9 miles, course would flatten out for miles. Allowed me to break free & enjoy the open expanse. Red rock, cliff canyons, spectacular view of the Colorado below. Cool temps this day — pretty much perfect, traversing high arid desert. Completely exposed, heat would be a suffer fest.
3rd Aid Station on, hung with a group from Oregon/Virginia. All graduated Virginia Tech days past. One guy in the bunch struggling. Marathoner/fit but notta lotta altitude ’round his DC home. Couple of us stayed behind, kept his spirits up, feet moving forward.
Unfortunately, that’s how I’d end my day.
Course went long by half-mile so… after 18+ miles, we arrived at the day’s only cutoff station @ 12:03pm, 3 minutes past Cinderella hour. Explained to folks I was feeling GREAT & could certainly finish remaining 13 miles over the next 5 hours (course limit).
This day, rules were rules.
Post-race, 90% of my run friends say you ignore them & go on. Refuse to give up your bib. They expect that. Huh?
Not me. Just a chump I guess. Higher [integrity] standard, that goes far beyond trail racing.
So… that’s how it ended. You take off your bib & give to RD. They eventually provide transport back. That’s what happens when you DQ… & now I know. 2 of us chose to run over the saddle on an ATV road, extend our day & forego the SAG wagon experience.
Today stung. Didn’t end by choice. Wasn’t meant to be.
Will return to Fruita this November (Kessel 60K). Not sure if Desert RATS will make a future calendar. Thankfully there’s a lotta race options that probably better align with my run standards. Strong believer we support our trail community/young old new experienced… especially in my home Colorado. Was told I should have left him, drop a pin location on my cell phone & share at the aid station.
Come on. Think we’re better than this.
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- cool morning temp
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- ready ready to run
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- stunning landscape
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- red rock, cliff canyons
DQ Disappointment
miles of SMILES
Podcast interview? and by a NY Yankees fan? That’s a DOUBLE no. LOL> Intro hints of scheduling delays in making this [interview] happen. Reality? HUGE case of imposter syndrome. I personally intake lotta marathon media — print articles & video. Super passionate about the sport, both road & trail. So what could I add?
Bill Stahl, Leadville 100 FINISHER. Race Director for the 9/11 American Heroes Run. Me? I’m a back-of-the-pack marathoner who’s Forrest Gump’d his way across 7 continents and all 50 States. Never did I ever… 11 years later, dream… I’d be characterized ‘a serial marathoner’.
Faith, friends & family. That’s the secret sauce.
Strong Christian faith, GREAT friends, bestest FAMILY.
And grit. And self belief. And miles of road.
American Heroes Run is a small local event, which I’ve selected as my 100-mile race destination. It’s where I met my run-buddy Karen in 95-degree heat & shared my cancer diagnosis. Crazy intimate details marathoners share with other marathoners; makes our sport unique. Long miles, physical push-push-push fatigue — it’s all part of the recipe, the ultra adventure.
2023, I returned to American Heroes to FUN RUN the marathon with Karen, start-to-finish. Conversation pace, 5+ hours. Knew then, HERE would be my 100.
Friday Sept 6/Saturday Sept 7. 30-hour time limit. Say a prayer that day.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1452355/14685517
Keenan Haga is who you might call a serial marathoner. In fact, he has run 311 of them so far. On every continent, including Antarctica. He has run one in every state – three times. Keenan’s goal for 2024 is to run 100 marathons, including 13 in 15 days, plus a 100-miler. You’ll undoubtedly enjoy hearing about his cool experiences running among polar bears, sea lions, on the race track at Churchill Downs, at Crater Lake, Oregon, and the not-so-great ones like getting a parasite from water at an aid station in Brazil. In the midst of all of this marathoning, Keenan also beat stomach cancer, chemotherapy, the whole works. He credits running with helping him develop the attitude that he could dig in to battle it. But he kept his diagnosis to himself, even to his family, until he met another runner, Karen Kay-Timonier, at the American Heroes Run to whom he opened up and began to share his cancer journey. Keenan had already discovered how much he cherished the running community he’s met throughout the world, but now he has also been absorbed into the cancer survivor community in which he can share his experiences. The first things I noticed in our chat is how down-to-Earth Keenan is about his life’s extraordinary journey, his positivity, humility, warmth, and his gratitude that he gets to do the things he does. For you distance junkies, Keenan also shares a lot of helpful little tips from a guy who covers an awful lot of miles. I think you’ll enjoy this chat a lot.
