Marathon/Ultra Archive 2010 Update

Marathons

Wichita Marathon October 2003

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon April 2004
Dallas White Rock Marathon December 2004

Chicago Marathon October 2005

New York City Marathon November 2006
Oklahoma Marathon (Tulsa) November 2006

Salt Lake City Marathon April 2007
Andy Payne Memorial Marathon (OKC) May 2007
Heart of America Marathon (Columbia, Missouri) September 2007
Marine Corps Marathon (Washington D.C.) October 2007
St. Jude Marathon (Memphis, Tennessee) December 2007

Olathe Marathon (KS) March 2008
Mountain Home Marathon (Arkansas) November 2008
Thunder Road Marathon (Charlotte, NC) December 2008

Salt Lake City Marathon April 2009
Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon April 2009
Los Angeles Marathon May 2009

Kansas City Marathon October 2009

Eisenhower (Abilene, KS) Marathon April 2010

Fargo Marathon May 2010
Rock Creek Night Marathon July 2010 Trail Marathon PR of 5:10

Kansas City Marathon PR 3:27 October 2010
Eisenhower Marathon April 2010

23 marathons in 13 states as of 4/11/11

Ultras

Flatrock September 50K 2007

Psycho-Wyco Ice-Version 50K Februrary 2008
Cross Timbers 50-Mile (Texas) February 2008
Rockin K 50-Mile April 2008
Free State 100K April 2008
Psycho-Wyco Fire-Version 50K July 2008
Lunar Trek 40 Mile July 2008
Leadville Trail 100 (DNF at 50 Mile) August 2008
Flatrock 50K September 2008
Heartland 100 Mile October 2008
Rock Creek 50K October 2008
Run for Missions 103.9 miles November 2008
One Hill at a Time 50K December 2008

Kansas Ultrarunners Society Members Only Flint Hills 50 mile March 2009
Rockin K 50 mile (DNF at 36 miles) April 2009

Free State 40 Mile April 2009

Lunar Trek 100K July 2009

Leadville Trail 100 (DNF at 50Kish) August 2009

Flatrock 50K September 2009

Heartland 100 Mile October 2009
Rock Creek 50K October 2009
Run for Missions 104.2 miles November 2009
One Hill at a Time 50K November 2009

Rockin K 50 mile April 2010

Free State 100K April 2010
Moonlight Madness 50 Miler July 2010
Patriots' Run (53 miles) September 2010
Flatrock 50K September 2010
Heartland 100 October 2010 (PR 22:22)
Run for Missions 103.9 miles November 2010

Grasslands 50 mile (trail 50 PR of 10:52) March 2011
Rockin' K 50 mile April 2011

 32 ultramarathons as of 4/4/11

BOOK REVIEW: "Born to Run"

“Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superatheletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen” by Christopher McDougall

“Born To Run” is a cool book. It’s also a weird, scattered, odd, and random book. But it’s good because it is thorough, descriptive, challenging, paradigm-challenging, provocative, inspiring, informative, entertaining and very strange! At first I thought the author had ADHD and then by the end I was sure he does! Anyway, the book highlights the Tarahumara Indians in the Copper Canyons of Mexico who happen to be amazing runners. But that’s only a part of the content. It also just highlights the work of ultrarunning in general and talks in great details about some of the most popular and challenging ultras (including Leadville) and athletes.

Every runner should read this book! You won’t agree with everything in it (who would?!), but you’ll be challenged and inspired to be a better runner and healthier person by reading. Once you get to the half way point, you’ll have a hard time putting it down! I learned so much I didn't know about ultras - including the fact that Dean Karnazes didn't finish Leadville the first two times he ran it (just like me!) so I don't have to feel too much like a loser!

There are many but two of my favorite passages are here:

[speaking of the Leadville Trail 100 mile run the author writes (“he” is Leadville Race-Director Ken):]

To get a sense of what he came up with, try running the Boston Marathon two times in a row with a sock stuffed in your mouth and then hike to the top of Pikes Peak.

Done?

Great. Now do it all again, this time with your eyes closed. That’s pretty much what the Leadville Trail 100 boils down to: nearly four full marathons, half of them in the dark, with twin twenty-six-hundred-foot climbs smack in the middle. Leadville’s starting line is twice as high as the altitude where planes pressurize their cabins, and from there you only go up…

…Fingers crossed, Leadville has yet to polish anyone off, probably because it beats most runners into submission before they collapse. Dean Karnazes, the self-styled Ultramarathon Man, couldn’t finish it the first two times he tried; after watching him drop out twice, the Leadville folks gave him their own nickname: “Ofer” (“O fer one, O for two…”). Less than half the field makes it to the finish every year.

Not surprisingly, an event with more flameouts than finishers tends to attract a rare breed of athlete… (page 61)

[speaking of Ann Trason, affectionately named “La Bruja” by the Tamahuara]

Ann also acclimated effortlessly to high altitude, and knew better than anyone alive how to analyze and attack the logistical problems of a one-hundred-mile footrace. At its essence, an ultra is a binary equation made up of hundreds of yes/no questions: Eat now or wait? Bomb down this hill, or throttle back and save the quads for the flats? Find out what is itching in your sock, or push on? Extreme distance magnifies every problem (a blister become a blood-soaked sock, a declined PowerBar becomes a woozy inability to follow trail makers), so all it takes is one wrong answer to ruin a race. But not for honor-student Ann; when it came to ultras, she always aced her quizzes. (p.75)

Fargo Marathon 2010

Fargo, North Dakota. The land where high noon is not high in the sky! The sun set and rose about 45 minutes later and earlier than it does in Wichita and sits at a different spot in the sky.


Last Saturday, I finished 208 out of 1885 finishers at the Fargo Marathon with an official time of 3:28:42, which is a new PR for me! This is only about a minute and 16 seconds faster than last months previous best in Abilene, but is still a PR! Last time I broke 3:30 it was really tough and I felt like I had to fight and almost 'redline' to make it. This time it felt like cruise control the whole way and was 'relatively' easy. I had a one spot were it felt tough (mile 16-17.5) but I was able to maintain pace. The last 3 miles I was only able to pick up the pace by about 10-20 seconds, running about 7:40ish miles.


It rained hard for the first 7 miles, sprinkled and misted for the next 5 or so and then the sun came out and it got hot and sunny and humid and windy (some gale force winds from the south) towards the end. The course was very nice with beautiful homes. I ran the whole time with the 3:30 pace team until mile 23 when I went on ahead a bit to 'see what I could do'. The course crossed the Red River into Moorehead, Minnesota for a couple of miles as well. The FargoDome Finish was pretty fun.


I still would have 18 minutes left to cut to have a Boston Qualifying time but I feel like I could cut off 5 minutes if I ran it again today. We're still talking 45 seconds per mile - it's going to be tough but I think it's possible so I'm going to keep working at it.


My mile splits at Fargo were very consistent until I sped up about mile 23: 20M 2:39:54, 13.1M 1:44:58, 10K 0:49:31.

Event photos at (bib number 1297): http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=59919&BIB=1297&S=230&PWD=

My aunt Linda went with me to cheer me on and was very happy!


My finish line photo with Linda about 10 minutes after finishing.


Linda found this Space Aliens restaurant with Earthlings welcome that she loved so we took a picture at it!

Graduation Pictures

So many graduation parties and receptions in the month of May!

Gradutation Season

Graduation Celebration for my Mom

Last Saturday my mom celebrated the finishing* of her Masters of Science in Nurse Anesthesia degree from Newman University. *though she'll won't be done until clinicals are over in August and she passes boards and gets her certification in September.

Congrats, Mom!