Day at the Office

Day at the Office
All Terrain Vehicle
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Phillppians 3:14

Thursday, February 26, 2009

DMITRY....Killing it at Crosstimbers 50 miler!


As you know I was not able to catch up to Dmitry at Crosstimbers this past weekend. But with that said, I got my hands on some pics with his famous hat. Seriously, my friend Rick, from California, recognized Dmitry at Rocky Raccoon Ultra Marathon in Huntsville Texas because he saw the hat that was also pictured on my blog. Small world...seriously the Ultra World is a small world. As of now I plan on crewing/pacing Dmitry at the Cactus Rose 100 Miler in October. Also good pics of typical Crosstimber trail run. In the picture below you will also see Sonia Burdett descending. She does NOT KNOW THE WORD QUIT!...sometimes she may be DAL...but never quits.



Monday, February 23, 2009

Back in Full Swing and a Trip to Crosstimbers

Training update: Back into full swing. As always, doing the Spin thing on Monday and the strength training on Wednesday. Tempo and hill training runs on Tuesday and Thursday respectively followed by a 25 mile run on Saturday Morning and a 10 mile trail run on Sunday Morning.
Enough with the training stuff and on to the good stuff.

After Saturday’s run, I showered and was off to Luke’s Basketball game. He had one of his best games and played stifling defense. Luke is not afraid of contact and likes to mix it up under the basket, which at the age of 8, is half the battle. He hustled the whole game.

Right after his game, we changed, grabbed a bite to eat, and then was off to the Crosstimbers 50 mile Ultramarathon on the shores of Lake Texaoma. I had a couple of friends running the 50 miles and was anxious to check in on them. This race is known as one of the tougher 50 milers in Texas.

We arrive around 0200 and Luke was in his element running around in the woods. After about an hour of our arrival, Scott Eppleman wraps up the 50 miler and wins the whole thing. After his completion Scott looked like he had just walked around the block instead of running a half a century.

Scott Eppleman - 50 miler winner at the finish line

Upon arriving, I checked in on Marshall K and Dmitry R half way splits. I couldn’t believe Marshall’s time. After calculating his 30 mile training run times and cross referencing his splits, he was on pace to run substantially under 11 hours. I had pre race predicted a time for Marshall at around 11 hours. Dmitry was on pace to run a strong race as well.

Marshall comes into the aid station with only 5 miles to go. He looked strong. I call out, MARSHALL, YOU ARE RUNNING LIKE AN ANIMAL! He reponds, I’m in 5th place…, “ I know”…to find out the huge obstacles he overcame the last five miles and the outcome, read about it HERE. That’s his story to tell!

Marshall at the 45 mile marker....Running Like an Animal


Off for the last 5 miles...little did he know what was about to happen! Read his blog to find out.

Luke and I waited for Dmitry to come in. It was getting close for us to go back to town due to prior commitments, so I ran a ways down the trail knowing it would almost be time for him to come into the aid station. We never saw Dmitry, but when it was said and done, he had set a PR. Way Freaking Cool.
Luke having a great time
All in all a great day. Congrats gentlemen!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

God Made Me a Mountain Goat...

And I know that I will need to explain. This realization has come to light within the past few weeks.

This past Saturday I stopped by Luke’s Locker and got to catch up with my buddy Patton Gleason. Patton runs the training program for the Luke Locker store in Plano and for the Whiterock Marathon ran the 24 miles to the start line and then ran the marathon. He is a great guy and always says that we need to go run together, which is then followed by me saying, “Patton you do realize I’m not fast and that are you sure you want to run with me as I will serve as an anchor.” His normal reply is something like, “hey, you need to throw away the watch…we’ll be two guys out enjoying a great trail run.” So to end our conversation on Saturday, Patton lets me know that there will be a group of guys meeting out at Erwin Park at 0600 for a great trail run. OK,OK, OK,…I’m in!.

What Patton failed to tell me was that all the other guys are Boston Marathon Qualifiers! With the trail being flat and not very technical I realized that is was going to be futile to hang on with these gazelles. They waited at the end of the first 8 mile loop for me to finish up. While we were standing around talking, we saw a group of about 6 high schoolers running through the park. One could quickly tell that they were good runners. Lean, long strides, keeping an incredible pace and making it look effortless. The line of runners meandered through the meadows and around the trail. It was beautiful to watch. They were Gazelles. It was awesome!. I then realized…”hey Dave, YOU ARE NO GAZELLE!”

I thought back to Bandera. The first 10 miles is all climbing and descending and really technical to boot. I ran with 4 runners during those 10 miles, holding my own and many times on the downhill passing and leading the pack. When the trail leveled out at about mile 11…zoom…they were gone. I realized then…not gazelle…more like a Mountain Goat. This was confirmed by my ultra marathon running buddy, Marshall King. We run about at the same pace. Tuesday he went to do hill repeats with some fast runners. He told me while on the hill, he was the one leading the charge, motoring up the inclines…another mountain goat.. So I end with this: I run more like the first picture instead of the second picture. God made me a mountain goat…and I love it!



Monday, February 2, 2009

Trail Running Buddy



For the past three weeks I have been doing an active recovery/sabbatical from a training cycle. I am just about ready to get back into the swing again and have some races picked out for the year. These will follow in due time.

So at the close of these three weeks, I was ready for a moderate distance trail run. I had been communicating with Marshall King, a fellow North Texas Trail Runner on line. He completed the Bandera 100K (62 mile) race in a stellar time. After minimal communication we decided to meet at Arbor Hills Nature Preserve in Plano Texas for a good morning trail run. We agreed for a 0500 start time. I woke up at 0438. My Marine training kicked in and I was out the door by 0445. That's right, 7 minutes from the bed to the car. I was only late by 3 minutes.

The time flew by. I have never done a longer run with anyone. We had such a great time that when I was completed I couldn't believe I was out for just under 3 hours. Marshall was going to knock out another 15 miles to wrap up a 30 mile day. I, on the other hand, had a basketball game for Luke to get to and my Macy's 6 year old birthday part to help out with. Marshall and I agreed to run together again on a more frequent basis. O Good times I tell ya!!!!

RUN ON -SEMPER FIDELIS

RUN ON -SEMPER FIDELIS