us-presidents

Rocky Mountain 50K

Published May 26, 2019

7am Start @ the Lincoln Monument.

Nope, not that Lincoln Monument. Exit 323 I-80 East, 10 miles outside Laramie. 8,640ft elevation. High point of the Lincoln Highway. Park Ranger greeting: “Welcome to the Summit” 🗻

Buffalo NY Memorial Day last, Buffalo image on today’s state flag – high flying beside a WYOMING roadside museum. Museum? Yep, I’ll be back ✅ First… 32 miles of Ponderosa Pine, Colorado Aspen, dirt trail, old Highway 30 and HILLS. Billed as Wyoming’s toughest marathon – it’s a high elevation hilly one. Training run for Bighorn? Third times a charm me thinks, only a few weeks away.

Chilly/foggy/overcast Start, dodged another hot one. Notta lotta tree cover after 6 miles. Pine are scenic aromatherapy but not broad leaf green. Cup-less course. Hydration vest ready. Let’s roll.

Downhill first 2 miles. Wonky gut only 4 miles in. Elevation, lotta trail bounce. Slowed pace. Gonna finish, finish with a smile. That’s the Milano mantra. “Be the person your dog thinks you are.”

Strong headwind past the Halfers’ turnaround. Asphalt next few miles, old Highway 30. 10% grade (and wind) but pavement appreciated under my feet. Change is good, mixes it up. Lost all the crowd (notta lotta 50k or marathoners). Cranked up my tunes, head/body feelin’ good by Vedauwoo.

5-mile stretch of trees & campers on a dirt ranch road. Memorial Day weekend. Grills & lawn chairs early-morn abandoned, waiting for holidayers to waken. Breakfast cooking on my return thru town.

Marathon turnaround. HILL. Two miles more ‘til my orange cone & race rep check-in. Good bit of climb between the respective half-way points. Sun HIGH, getting warm. Run, walk. Refuel’d, dumped sand/rocks outta my shoes before the short 3-mile highway reverse. Easy steady pace – NO WALK, NO STOPPING ‘til I see dirt on the other side. Goals are good 🙂.

STRONG legs, stomach a-ok, smile on my face. I’ve got this. 6-hour goal in my head. Well, that’s not happening. Would miss 6:30 too, but enjoying the ride. Steady. AND know what’s coming – 2 miles of UP – then FINISH BANNER a blowin’.

My first belt buckle, fourth ultra of 2019 and my 49^th state. Eyes on Deadwood & a SECOND 50 State finish. 7 days.

Highway drive HOME, shower, quick sleeps. Bolder Boulder tomorrow! It’s a Colorado tradition ❤️

2019 Wyoming Marathon Series

50K Results

KR Haga Colorado M 6:52:47

: Lincoln Monument

: 32 miles along the Lincoln Highway

: 4th ULTRA of 2019

: high elevation & HILLS

: WYOMING roadside bonanza

Posted in Marathons/Ultras, Rocky Mtn West | Tagged museo, urban-trail, us-presidents | Leave a comment

Old Hickory

Published December 2, 2018

Hour to Bowling Green, refueled/stretched/discarded yesterday’s muddy remnants. Backroads of Kentucky. Hour-15 further (back on highway now), pulled into Hermitage parking. History nerd alert. Flight home not ‘til noon – left 75 minutes to tour the People’s President’s Tennessee home. Andrew Jackson, Old Hickory. Sis, Paul & Stephen punched their tickets last month when we group ran Nashville. Today, I’d get my opportunity.

Not a HUGE fan of $20 Jackson (Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt top my list) – but he embodied the American dream. After 50 years of aristocrats, Jackson was elected by the People, as one of us. Orphaned early/penniless, joined the army, worked hard/driven & (after being robbed 4 years earlier) became U.S. President.

(Won both Popular & Electoral vote majorities in 1824, but the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams – 2nd in actual election. You think Gore or Hillary got robbed, check this out.)

Folks in period costumes each major room/floor of the Hermitage. Lotta knowledge/super interesting. I remember reading a book about Jackson & wife Rachel Donelson in 4^th grade. Frontier love story.

What I didn’t read in 4^th grade? Never really divorced husband #1 – these were Frontier times. Not widowed, married to 2 men – problem for the newly elected Jackson. Controversy took its toll & the former Mrs. Robards died before Jackson took office. Buried in her inaugural ball gown. Sad, somber.

Every era has its stories – two centuries before social media.

Folks also choose to gloss over slavery. Gone with the Wind/Southern romance hoohah. Flying to South Carolina next week, expect more of the same. Part of America’s shameful past. I capture, chain, shackle you. You belong to me. I sell you as property. Why stop there? Humans are meat, right? Absolutely bonkers.

Remember the past, learn from the past – don’t live in the past.

the Hermitage: interesting old house, Greco-Old World columns/architecture. Slave owner. 75 minutes is plenty.

: Election of 1824

: The People’s President

: inaugural Carriage

: $20 Jackson

: Frontier LOVE story

: Hermitage Mansion

: no pics policy 🙁

: fields of Hickory

: Scottish seed

: it’s not romantic, remember & learn from the past

: Hermitage’s first caretaker

: Frontier reality

Posted in South | Tagged museo, us-presidents | Leave a comment

Kentucky Abe

Published November 30, 2018

Christmas, New Year, Antarctica – and FOUR more marathons 🙂

Bags packed, Friday pre-dawn flight, touchdown 9am Central. Rental pickup in Nashville, 2½ hour trek north to rural Kentucky. Falls of Rough, tomorrow’s inaugural trail race destination. Self-supported run. No crew, no aid stations. Two 13 mile loops – in the woods, in December.

trick with Kentucky races: START time. State’s divided between 2 time zones, with most towns built along demarcation. Left Nashville (Central Time), lunch’d in Elizabethtown (Eastern Time), slept in Falls (Central again). RD [Race Director] pre-race talk described trail conditions, weather expectation AND another Time Zone reminder. (Lotta racers from Louisville/Eastern sleepers.)

Soooo much history. Seemingly middle of nowhere – America’s Frontier States: Kentucky & Tennessee. Joined the original 13 soon after Revolution. Boone, Crockett. Whole lotta history.

GPS set, destination: Hodgenville. Sinking Spring Farm then 9 miles more to Knob Creek. Illinois might sport ‘Land of Lincoln‘ on their plates but Kentucky’s where Honest Abe got his start.

Organized 1906 (decades before the iconic DC version was visualized), Abraham Lincoln’s Birthplace – the original Lincoln Memorial. 5 US Presidents made their journey here. Both Roosevelts (Theodore & Franklin), Taft, Wilson & Eisenhower.

Log cabin replica, the ‘Sinking Spring’, & a HUGE granite Memorial. HIGHLY recommended. 56 steps to its Greco-columnar entrance – one for each year of the President’s life. Awesome day trip.

Quick walkabout Knob Creek Farm, Lincoln’s Boyhood Home then an hour west to Grayson County/Kentucky’s Rough River. Sleeping historic Friday/Saturday nights. One of 6 staying in Green Farms Mansion. Quiet/big open rooms/creaky wood floors (the originals). Like part of the board game Clue, 19^th century elegance. Professor Plum, lead pipe, Conservatory. Reminiscent of sleeps at the Lizzy Borden House, Fall River 2015. creepy, SPOOKY, dark.

Early nite/sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite. Tomorrow’s run SUPER close (maybe 500ft away) – other side of Green Mill Bridge. Miss Peacock, candlestick, Ballroom. No one hears ya scream wooded deep in Kentucky. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick….