I selected the Lean Horse 100 miler because it is a fast runnable 100 and it fit into my plans to get into great marathon shape over the summer. Lean Horse also would not tear up my body too much so I could get back to marathon training as quickly as possible.   The race is an out and back. A 4 mile start through the small town of Hot Springs and around a reservoir before getting on a hilly 12 mile rocky county road section that lead to the Mickelson trail. This trail is a converted railroad route that is now a biking/hiking trail that runs on the west side of the Black Hills. After 33+ miles on the trail you turn around and head back to Hot Springs.   My training involved the typical back to back long runs, and I focused on getting in quality long runs with no walking, and when my pace got too sluggish I would end the run. My longest long run was in the low 30’s, and my highest mileage weeks were in the 80’s. I did weekly tempo runs, and learned to appreciate slow recovery runs, plus I went to the gym twice a week. I tried out a variation of food and drink during my long runs. I found that in the Texas hot humid summer I preferred pure water to any drink mix. Later I discovered that a mixture of fruit juice and water was very palatable to me. The food I liked best to eat while running was a bean/rice tortilla: no fat refried beans and sticky rice inside a white tortilla, digested well, tasted good, and was easy to eat while running.   Goal was initially to break 22 hours, but my training went so well in the heat that I somehow thought I could break 20 hours.   Lean Horse is a great race to have a crew help you. Crew can meet you at all aid stations and at other points along the course. My wife Ava was my crew, she did an excellent job.   My plan was to run at a comfortable pace for as long as possible, then drop to a walk/run strategy, and hopefully be able to finish strong. I ran with a 20 oz back bottle with a mixture of water and orange/pineapple juice. I carried a tortilla with me that I would eat half of every hour, spaced in with the juice/water mix. I also carried a 10 oz hand bottle of water, this was easy to carry without the arm fatigue I have experienced carrying the 20 oz bottles.   The race went well. I did experience fatigue around mile 30, and I ingested a Red Bull at mile 35. The distance carving of the Crazy Horse memorial at mile 40 inspired me, and I ran several miles very strong.   One thing great about an out and back race is that you get to see where you rank. The leader of the race passed me at my mile 43; he was 14 miles ahead of me! At mile 50 I knew I was in 11th place. The 10th place runner was at the Aid Station at mile 50, I left before he did and knowing I was in 10th place the race suddenly became a ‘real’ race!   I pushed hard for the next 20 miles, only a couple of times seeing a runner in the distance behind me. At mile 70 though, I had to deal with 1 huge blister on my middle right toe. One of the reasons to use safety pins for attaching your race number, they make great blister busters, this blister never bothered me again, although now the toe nail is coming off. My left foot long toe had a nasty blister around the toe nail which was floating. I should have pushed it off, instead I just quickly band aided it. With gumption and Advil, I decided no more stopping and to just suffer through whatever else developed. The weather during the day was dry, windy and in direct sunlight, I tried to stay hydrated, but my well-ventilated road racing shoes allowed my feet to get too dry which for me means I get blisters. I changed socks twice during the race.   It got dark around mile 73, at mile 74 I saw a flashlight in the distance behind me. Someone was running hard and closing! I picked it up and ran 2 miles fast and without stopping. At the mile 76 aid station and quickly grabbed and ran. I learned from Ava that I now was in 9th place, a runner had dropped, but I thought I had seen 2 lights closing on me and I did not want to get knocked to 11th place!   At mile 82 I finally could not keep it up, I let the light close……it turned out to be a guy on a bicycle who was hanging glow sticks!   Since it got dark around mile 73 I had not used a light, the Mickelson trail was a level surface and the contrast between the color of the trail and the rest of the terrain allowed for running safely without a light. I prefer running without light, you see much more and really feel a part of where you are running, plus any runners behind you cannot see you! At the mile 83.4 aid station I was asked if I had a light, and I said yes, but I didn’t like using a light.   Then young runner (31 yrs) at mile 85 did pass me, he asked if I had a light, and I told him yes, buy you can see well enough to run without one, and I encouraged him to turn his light off……actually his light was bothering me. As he left me in the dust, I saw him get about a quarter of a mile ahead of me where Ava was parked on the side of the hilly county road waiting with more water for me. She asked him if he passed a runner, and he wasn’t sure, he was experiencing some hallucinations. GEE! If I had known that I would have dreamed up something to tell him!   I almost caught the young fellow at the finish line, he edged me out by 2 minutes, and he was very surprised that I finished strong and held 10th place to the finish line.   My final time was 19 hrs  38 min  45 sec   I was 10th out of 112 starters. I broke 20 hours and was 4th in my age group.   Animal I encountered during the race: A recently run over bunny rabbit at mile 6 on the hilly county road, I picked the bunny up and threw it in the bar ditch. A 2 foot long snake at mile 29, it was sunning itself in the middle of the trail, as I passed it I feared for its safety, so I gently kicked some gravel on it as I told it to get off the trail or it might get run over. It reluctantly squirmed away, and soon bikers passed me who would have surely run over my snake friend. A medium size fox just outside the city of Custer, its bushy tail pointed at me. And I saw a lot of deer along the trail, especially in the evening before the sun set.   Body Damage:   Except for 4 blisters, 2 toes and 2 foot pads, I only had general mental and physical fatigue. One toe stayed bruised for a week. I did not run for a week, and then when I did a slow run it did bring out deep muscle soreness in the quads. This soreness did not inhibit my return to marathon training.   What worked?   Ava was a great crew, without her I would have finished hours later Carrying a 10oz hand bottle and the back 20oz bottle with juice Ingesting 1 S-cap per hour, except during the warm day when I took 1 every 45 minutes The night before I ate over half of a pizza hut pizza without cheese. The morning of the race I had my standard soymilk w/Sustained Energy & Java Juice, plus a Clif bar along with hydration. No coffee, just caffeine from the Java Juice which equals about 1 cup of coffee. The bean/rice tortillas were great. I also had a Clif z-bar, some Newman’s O’s (his version of Oreos), 4 red bulls, and 1 PowerBar caffeine gel at mile 94. From the aid stations I only had 1 handful of boiled potatoes and 3 grapes. I ran by heart rate for the first 30 miles.   What didn’t work: I should have worn my slightly heavier trail shoes: Inov 230 Rocklite (8.5 oz), instead I stuck with my light weight (6 oz) Nike Katana Racer III shoe that I have grown to love. The Rocklites seal the foot better and would have kept my feet moister and allowed less dust in, this might have prevented the blisters I suffered through. Besides 2 blisters on my toes, I had a small blister on the bottom of my right foot and a large half dollar size blister on my left foot. The left foot probably received the larger blister because I push off with it since my left leg is stronger then my right.   I need to have a small well-crafted blister kit to attend to major blisters   Red bulls are great, but the carbonation limited my ability to get back to running after drinking one. Instead in the future I will use Java Juice packets, either mixed in soymilk or water.   The race was tough physically and mentally. I don’t listen to music when racing, so I had lots of time to talk to myself, sing, admire the Black Hills…….and when I got to mile 50 aid station and my time was 8 hrs 58 minutes, which would have been a great 50 mile PR for me, but I had 50 more miles to go….Ava told me I was in 11th place, that the guy in the Canadian shorts still at the aid station was in 10th place. I kissed her and said “Was” as in he WAS now in 10th place, and I left the aid station in an in trot. Now it really was a race!   We plan to return to Lean Horse in August 2009 and do the 50 miler which will give us more time to sight see. We did go to Mtn Rushmore, which was more impressive then I expected it to be. We did see pronghorn antelope, bison, prairie dogs and deer, both whitetail and mule. I recommend this race to anyone wanting a fast but challenging 100 miler that allows great support from crew, plus the race director and the volunteers at the aid stations were great.