Old Pueblo 50 Mile Endurance Run - Second half

It gets lonely out on the trail sometimes. Truth be told, there are runners a few minutes behind and in front of me. Mile 27 here and feeling good. This is entering into Box Canyon, a very pretty drive and a nice uphill for 4 miles.


This is aid station 29 and the next time I see Kirsten it will be at mile 40! She scored me an ice cold berry smoothie that really hits the spot. At this point I'm feeling pretty strong and reeling people slowly. My slower pace at the beginning is paying off now. A few runners tried to run up Box Canyon and that proved to be pretty taxing. Unless you are very strong, running up Box Canyon will take its toll later on for sure.


Coming into mile 40 aid station! Only 10 to go. This is Gene and I. We both run in the Tucson Trail Runs group on Sundays. Smiles are good at mile 40!!!

A few advil, lots of electrolytes and 46 miles from the start. Coming into the 46 mile aid station, the last of the race. Turns out mile 40 to 46 was one of the hardest sections with a big climb and a big descent. I passed a runner who had fell earlier and had a really bloody knee and a bad limp. I thought she wouldn't finish but she crossed the finish line only about 30 minuntes after me. Wow! Ross Zimmerman is here taking pictures. He's the director of Tucson Trail Runs and a really nice guy. Kirsten is here, of course. She was crucial for my success in getting this far and although I'm very emotional at this point, I manage not to shed a tear. From here out its a long 4 miles to the finish.


Here are some shananigans! Paul and I race to the finish at 10 hours and 31 minutes. The race director later told us we provided the only photo finish of the race! Too funny.


The best part of having a crew is the beer aftewards! Thanks Kirsten!
A good time was had by all.
Here are the results:
http://www.oldpueblo50.com/Results_files/op50results09.htm

Old Pueblo 50 Mile Endurance Run

I finally lived the dream that had consumed my mind, on and off, for the last 3 years; running a true ultra-marathon. The Old Pueblo 50 Mile Endurance Run is a classic desert southwest event. The race was put on my Lynda and was executed in grand style. Thanks to all the volunteers that made it possible....that includes you too Tom! The race went very well. I let everyone get out in front of me, and settled on the pace that I thought would carry me through. I walked most of the hills and ran much of the rest.


The runners line up with all sorts of thoughts running through their heads. All the training miles are in the banks and earning interest.


Here I say good-bye to Kirsten, my faithful crewer, and look forward to seeing her a mere 7 miles down the trail at aid station #2.


I have head lamp for the early morning darkness but it soon becomes dead weight as the sun rises over the distant Dragoon Mountains, home of Cochise's Stronghold.


This is aid station #2 at mile 7. Kirsten's here ready with a new shirt, sunscreen, snacks and other stuff I might need for the next long section of 18 miles. I'm nervous leaving this station because the next time I see Kirsten this race will be half way over and I may or may not be in such good shape by then.

Running fever

I have no aspirations to run a marathon. Running for 26.2 miles seems like a painful endeavor, even when I watch Adrian sail through the finish line all smiles. I enjoy watching marathoners, so I was looking forward to Adrian's participation in the P.F. Chang's Rock n' Roll Marathon in Phoenix this past weekend. We walked through the expo in downtown Phoenix to pick up his race packet and checkout the vendors.

Somewhere around the registration table, Adrian turned to me and asked, "So, are you going to sign up for the half?" He's talking about the half-marathon, which would mean running for 13 miles.

Maybe it was the free shots of Cytomax or the thousands of giddy participants parading around the expo. Whatever it was, I found myself signing up for the half marathon within 15 minutes of Adrian's question.

Long story short, I did OK. Considering that I have never run more than eight miles in a single stretch, I did fantastic. My time was 2 hours and 31 minutes. Adrian ran the marathon in 3 hours 39 minutes. Clearly, he is the runner in the family.

Time to run

It's been about nine weeks since we finished hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I've used that time to do a little running in an attempt to stay in shape. Adrian has taken "a little running" to another level.

Adrian participated today in the Tucson Marathon and ran the 26.2-mile distance in 3 hours 19 minutes. That's 15 minutes better than his last marathon in Appleton, Wis.

Here's where it gets good. This is one of two "training" runs for a 50-mile run he's wants to try in March.

I don't get it. We hiked the same trail. All 2,663 miles. I can run maybe 5 miles in a stretch. Adrian is running marathons.

If you could do it all over again ...

We've been asked a lot of 'What would you change/do differently?' questions from future thru-hikers, friends and family since our return from the Pacific Crest Trail.

And what better way to address this semi-constant question then through our blog. The question varies a bit, but the root is the same: Would you do anything differently if you were to hike the Pacific Crest Trail again?

1.) Go lighter. This is easier said than done. We already had pretty light packs - 11- to 12-pound base weight - but I think there were a couple of items that could have stayed home.

2.) More cowboy camping. Our tarp tent would still be with us throughout the trail. I would have packed some Tyvek as a ground cloth and camped underneath the stars more often.

3.) Cathole preparedness. I have come to the conclusion that a trowel is essential, especially north of the desert. The ground is rooty, rocky and harder north of Kennedy Meadows General Store, mile 700ish.

4.) A few more food drops. We SHOULD HAVE shipped to Snoqualmie Pass, White Pass and Skykomish in Washington. I will have a post listing all of our food and data drops soon. Just be sure to add the ones I listed above, especially Snoqualmie. Super overpriced food.

5.) To bounce or not to bounce? Our bounce bucket, which held extra first-aid stuff, batteries, vitamins etc., etc., was incredibly helpful in the beginning. It lost its usefulness somewhere in Oregon and I should have shipped it home from Ashland, Ore.

6.) The first day. We had way too much crap with us for the first 100 miles to Warner Springs section. I would only carry enough food to get to Mount Laguna General Store. The store had plenty of food and good variety.

Voting for vagabonds

It can be tough voting if you've been in the woods for five months. Think of all of those hundreds of stories about Obama, McCain and even Hilary earlier this summer that we missed. How can I possibly make an educated decision about the candidates?
When I reentered society I thought, should I start from the beginning? Or simply pick up today's newspaper and forget about any relevant news stories that came out this summer?

As a journalist and news junkie I went back. But I seriously doubt if this is typical vagabond behavior. For one, it's not really realistic. Who has that much time? Oh yeah, I do.

During my search of the political archives, I stumbled upon these news gems. I know I am much more informed about issues now that I've read stories about Las Vegas strippers dressing up like Palin and how numberology proves that Obama is not the anti-Christ.

This is what happens when presidential hopefuls kick off their campaigns 20 months before the actual election. The news hole must be filled!

In celebration of Election Day - the first one in 10 years that I haven't been working as a reporter - I have posted a few more fun and weird political stories.

• Focus on Family Action pulling a video from its Web Site that asked people to pray for rain "of biblical proportions" during the Democratic convention
  
  
• New york Daily News hires a Palin look-alike to walk the street of NYC
  
  
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offers talks with "black man" in the White House

I also would be remiss to not offer up some interesting political stories from my friend, blogger and reporter Rob Mentzer. Here's his blog: http://amillionmonkeys.blogspot.com/

Or go to his pre-election links on his blog at the Wausau Daily Herald, his day job.

Finally, this has nothing to do with the presidential election, but any political ad that compares a candidate to R. Kelly is brilliant.

Here are some other odd political ads. And by odd, I mean really bad.

It's a wrap! Sort of

It's been six weeks since we finished the Pacific Crest Trail, so I guess it's over. It's no longer appropriate to camp in my mother-in-law's yard.

Our vagabonding ways must come to an end.

And hey, what better time to be out there looking for a job, right? It's not as if there's an economic meltdown occurring.

On second thought ... Maybe now is not the time to stop roaming. Maybe it's just the beginning for us.

We should probably wrap up our Pacific Crest Trail stuff before I start talking about a new adventure. I received a number of e-mails or comments from people who followed our trail journal or blog. There were lots of questions about the trail. I'll answer them as best I can over the next few days. Each post will try and address a different question so people can focus on one subject at a time or skip it all together.

For example, I got a lot of questions about pooping, which is sort of odd because it's pretty straightforward. But hey, I'm here to help, so keep your eyes on the blog for a post on pooping in the wild.