It has been quite a season, where do I start? The most important place to start is saying thanks wheremost deserved. Thanks so much to my family, Susan, my wife an my three daughters for allowing me the time, an freedom to train. Thanks to Joe and Joyce Prusaitis for your time an effort to the Texas Ultra running community. Your involvement creates a high quality and very enjoyable way to participate in the sometimes not so enjoyable sport of ultra running. I cannot say thanks enough to all the running clubs from across Texas that help Joe make all of this possible. Thanks to Hill Country Trail Runners, North Texas Trail Runners, H-T-Rex Trail Tunners, Tornados Running Club. A special thanks to Mariela Botella, Paul Stone, Michael Riggs, Victor Aquire. I would also say a special thanks to my unofficial ultra running club, and its' members, The Dorking Sportsman.
Now back to running, my Entire Trilogy began in October and has continued to today, some 2 days after The Cross Timbers 50 miler. I won't go into much detail about each run.
October:
- Oct. 8 - USA 10 miler, hot humid training run, sub 7 pace.
- Oct. 15 - Huntsville Half Marathon, warm day also, training run, sub 8 pace.
- Oct. 22 - Rocky Raccoon 50 K ,cool day 50’s I think, this is what I have been training for.
I had a plan to get to a sub 4 hr. PR. Everything went better than planed, 3:53:08 PR. I have to say thanks to my pacer Mark Sobus, great job!
November:
- Nov. 5 - Rocky Trails 50 miler, hottest day in history, 90 plus. This day did not go so well, PW at 50 mile distance. 11:37. You name it I probably did it wrong on this day.
- Nov. 26 - Kingwood Fit 30 K, I’m back, cool rainy day, 2:12, 7:07 pace.
December:
- Dec. 10 - Sunmart 50 miler, 40’s at the start, 7:27 good solid run. I collected my first sunmart bronze ponie award, I was excited. 1st in my age group 40-44. 14th place.
January:
- Jan. 7 - Bandera 100K, 40’s/ 80’s, pretty hot all day wide open sun. The first 50K went OK. The second 50K , well… not as well. I slowed quite a bit. I managed to hang on for a tough hard earned 13:28.
- Jan 15 - Houston Marathon, my 12th consecutive, yes 8 days after Bandera 100 K. 50’s at the start, OK weather. This went better than expected, 3:24:08.
February:
- Feb 4 - Rocky Raccoon 100 miler . This race went better than expected also. 17:57, PR by 2:35 WOW !!. 9th place, 1st master. I have a few details on this one. 1st loop 3:22, 2nd loop 3:25, 3rd loop 3:35, 4th loop 3:44, 5th loop 3:49 . A special thanks to my fifth loop pacer Sandy Horn, a fellow Dorking Sportsman, great job! Thanks to my fourth loop pacer Germen Collazos, great job! I feel I went into this race pretty “battle tested”. Again I had a plan to get me to sub 20 hr. I felt confident but you never know. One aide station at a time, one loop at a time I ran ahead of plan, but felt OK. I could eat an drink well all day that’s most important. I didn’t get to hot at mid day; I went from long sleeve 1st loop to singelet 2nd and 3rd loop to long sleeve 4th and 5th loop just as planed. Each aide station was someone encouraging me on. My friend and fellow Dorker, Bob Williams was at station 2/4 some 20 hrs, good job, he was great support each loop. Steve McNeil a long time Dorker ran a sub 24 hr paced by Dorker Lee Topham. A good friend of mine, Mark Sobus, not a Dorker yet, even traveled to Huntsville to cheer me on, thanks Mark. I feel like with all this support I had to do well on this day, thanks to everyone again.
- Feb 25 Cross Timbers - 50 miler. This is arguably the hardest trail in Texas. Well it rained all night Friday into Saturday morning, this trail was shoe sucking, ankle deep in mud. I still managed to post a fair time of 9:41, 3rd place and 1st master. I traveled north to Lake Texoma with 21 time Cross Timbers finisher Bob Williams, Lee Topham, Mike Price, all long time Dorking Sportsman. I also plan on running the Hogs Hunt 50K April 1st.
