The Hardest 3 Months



While running this past weekend on Saturday, September 9, two thoughts ran through my head:

  1. In exactly 4 weeks I’ll be 13 hours into my first 100-mile race, Grindstone. Hopefully I’ll be nearing the halfway point of 50 miles as my goal is 28 hours.
  2. In exactly 3 months I’ll be running Hellgate 100k on Saturday, December 9. (Fun fact, September and December always start on the same day of the week. As my birthday is September 25, Christmas is the same day of the week. This year, it’s Monday)

Needless to say, this will be the hardest 3 months of my life. 100 miles is 40 miles longer than my furthest race to date, Devil Dog 100k. Not only do I have to complete that, but Mountain Masochist (MMTR) 50-Miler is one month after that, and Hellgate 100k is one month after MMTR. I finished MMTR last year, and I have a great crew lined up for Grindstone. I’ve seen a large amount of the Hellgate 100k course as well. I find myself both excited and nervous. It’s about to be a fun (and exhausting) 3 months!!

I figured this would be a good time to talk about the two race series I have completed and the two race series I have yet to complete.

Lynchburg Road Runners Race Series (LRRC Race Series). Finishing Times/pace in parentheses

  1. Point of Honor 5k (Missed due to Dam 50k)
  2. Spring into Spring 4-Miler (26:15, 6:34/mile)
  3. Memorial Day 10k (42:24, 6:50/mile)
  4. Humankind 5k (20:37, 6:39/mile)
  5. Percival’s Island 5-Miler (33:54, 6:47/mile)
  6. Commonwealth Games 5k (20:50, 6:36/mile *Longer course of 3.16 miles)
  7. Lynchburg 5k/Half Marathon (1:38:50, 7:33/mile)

I ended up 6th place and first-place in the 25-29 age group

Southwest Virginia Triple Crown
  1. Holiday Lake 50k in Appomattox, VA (5:12:10, 9:46/mile)
  2. Dam 50k in Smith Mountain Lake/Sandy Level, VA (5:58:39, 11:04/mile)
  3. Promise Land 50k in Bedford, VA (7:04:12, 12:28/mile)

I ended up 2nd overall, no official results. But I do have a picture of the medal:

Nameplate is on top of a core sample from Smith Mountain Lake

The Lynchburg Ultra Series (LUS) is composed of 4 ultramarathons:

  1. Holiday Lake 50k
  2. Terrapin Mountain 50k in Sedalia, VA (5:52:23, 11:19/mile)
  3. Promise Land 50k
  4. Mountain Masochist 50-Miler in Montebello, VA: Saturday November 4

Finishing Prize: Black Patagonia Houdini jacket.

While not as good as 2016's Nanopuff, I'll use the Houdini a lot

Current Standings: 4th Place

The Beast Series is composed of 6 ultramarathons:

  1.   Holiday Lake 50k
  2. Terrapin Mountain 50k
  3. Promise Land 50k
  4. Grindstone 100-Miler in Staunton, VA: 6 pm Friday October 6 – 8 am Sunday October 8
  5. Mountain Masochist 50-Miler: Saturday November 4th 
  6. Hellgate 100k in Fincastle, VA: Saturday December 9th (12:01 am start!)

Finishing Prize: Bear Trophy
My friend Marc Griffin has completed all 9 Beast Series (one year was abbreviated)
Current Standings: 6th Place

All in all, A LOT of running! Maybe I'll do a little less next year!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Humanity of the Dark Knight

Image
Growing up, I loved superheroes. As a preschooler I loved the Power Rangers . Advancing in years, I became a fan of Superman, Captain America, The Flash, and both the Justice League and the Avengers. They were strong, powerful, courageous, and always seemed to do the right thing at the right time. While I my favorite superhero will always be Captain America (for his unwavering commitment to 'Merica ) I always felt a close connection to the man in black, the caped crusader, the Dark Knight: Batman. Looking back at it, I always connected with Batman because I could (very unrealistically) become Batman. Superman was from another planet, Captain America was injected with a special serum, the X-Men were mutants (and Wolverine became stronger with adamantium), and the list goes on. Side Note: A similar case can be made for Iron Man. Iron Man was gifted with incredible intuition and intelligence by his father, Howard Stark. All Batman inherited was a cool house and some neat  toys...
Read more

Giving Your All

Image
This past Monday at camp, Aaron Hanrick delivered a short message on giving your best for God. He started the message with instructions to make things right with our loved ones. He then proceeded to show this video clip from “Facing the Giants” The Death Crawl I wanted to take another step in this direction. Immediately after Aaron was finished with his great message, several illustrations and pop culture references came to mind. Staying with the sports theme, I immediately thought of my favorite runner of all-time: Steve “Pre” Prefontaine. Pre ran one way: hard. He ran as fast as he could, for as long as he could. Here are two quotations from him: “Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.” “The only good race pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.” His most pertinent quotation is this one, written on the poster: For the next reference, we have this classic song by the Foo Fighters: The Best of You Loo...
Read more

Trail Magic

Image
I had a free Saturday and I decided to hike a new spot that had been on my radar: Hay Rock. I had seen it on several hiking lists online, but I am always skeptical of information until I get a chance to explore it. I looked up the starting point and drove out to Daleville, loaded up my knapsack, and began the hike. The parking lot has a small connector trail to the Appalachian Trail. Following it southbound, it gained elevation for approximately 2 miles. I crossed railroad tracks, two stream crossings, log bridges, and underneath two power line sections. Once I started ridgeline hiking, I was not disappointed by the views. They were glorious, and you get a chance to see them below. Overview of Daleville, VA Making it to Hay Rock, I hung out on the rock and snapped pictures/video with my phone and GoPro (my new favorite “toy”). Taken with Galaxy S7 Edge Taken with GoPro Hero 5 As I was heading back down, I ran into a thru-hiker. Having a lit...
Read more