Category Archives: Running

On Racing

07 Sunday Dec 2025

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My mind won’t let go of what it felt like to be racing in yesterday’s Colder Bolder. It’s been so long since I’ve put myself out there, struggling to keep up while in oxygen debt. This runner behind me was from the wave that started 5 minutes ahead of mine. He wasn’t someone I was caught up in a race with. There were two women I found myself passing back and forth with.

One of them was 55 year old Michele Delman, pictured here in the orange tank top behind me. I was 2 seconds ahead of her at the one mile point, even at two miles as she ran 2 seconds faster than me, and we ran even splits for the final mile but I somehow finished 2 seconds ahead of her – apparently from my kick over the last 100 meters. We probably passed each other 4 or 5 times throughout the race.

Racing was fun and I might train for it more the next time I run a 5K. My legs are as sore this morning as they are after a marathon. No doubt, from wearing zero-drop racing flats that I wasn’t prepared for. The fastest runner my age finished at a 6:30 per mile pace. I could only dream of running that fast. But I am dreaming of running that fast. Maybe next year.

Running in Oxygen Debt is Racing

06 Saturday Dec 2025

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I ran the Colder Bolder 5K this morning. Start time – 7:35 am. An early run for me. The temps weren’t bad though, around 40°, but with a bit of a breeze at 8 mph. I’ve run these events well below zero in the past, where it’s earned its name.

The rooftops of the buildings on the CU campus are still full of snow. I ran without gloves or a hat but still might have been over-dressed wearing two shirts. I saw runners comfortable in tank tops, others were shivering.

I might have run a few seconds faster than last weekend’s turkey trot in my neighborhood, finishing in 25:37, an 8:15 pace. I felt stronger today, but I warmed up for this run. This course is harder though, not with true hills, but constant slopes, which when racing at altitude, feel like real hills.

I haven’t run this event in 9 years. It’s a super fun atmosphere with breakfast burritos and beer afterward. Assuming you drink beer for breakfast. I was running 5Ks under a 7 minute pace back then. I have to say, last weekend and today is the first time in years I’ve pushed myself to run at my lactate threshold. That’s hard but it feels like true racing. I couldn’t last running a marathon in oxygen debt, but that’s what 5Ks are good for.

My Thanksgiving

28 Friday Nov 2025

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I took the entire week off from work for Thanksgiving for some much needed recovery time. Karen and I hiked the Sourdough trail early in the week and had to stop the car on the road to allow some wild turkeys to pass. Imagine that.

It was a bit colder than we expected at 8,000 feet. We could have used mittens.

Not too much snow on the trail though. We expect to get our first real snowfall this coming weekend.

I’ve put most of my focus this week into rebuilding my running routine, getting a 13 miler on Saturday, followed by 15 miles on Sunday, the hike with Karen on Monday and a 20 miler on Tuesday. I haven’t run 20 miles since the Boulder Rez Marathon in August. I ran the same 10 minute pace. I saw this buck in Niwot on my 20 miler.

I ended the week with another turkey, and family. And more running and hiking. Happy Thanksgiving.

Senior Pass

23 Saturday Aug 2025

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Karen said let’s spend the weekend in a cabin on Fall River Road. By weekend, she meant Thursday night through Saturday. I worked on the deck Friday, over the noise of a strong running stream, Fall River which runs through Fall River Valley and empties into the Big Thompson River in Estes Park, like any other Friday.

I found time after work to run the Dear Mountain Trail before dinner. My annual pass to the park expired so I had to buy a new one. Because I’m 62 or older, I qualified for the Senior Pass – a lifetime membership for $80. A lifetime of running these trails. It was a good deal.

First Run After

09 Saturday Aug 2025

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My first run after last Saturday’s marathon was today, a full week later. That’s been how the last month of running has been for me, lucky to squeeze in some weekenders. Still, I can wake up any given Saturday and churn out a full marathon. I’m happy with that. These pics are from last week’s marathon and a few from today.

Nice view of the Flatirons as I ran across the dam. The first aid station was near this point. Two miles in or so.

The water is on the right side of this photo, to my left as I was running. The Rez was full of small sailboats. With the Front Range as a backdrop, it was pretty scenery.

There was still a decent core of runners to follow along my second time crossing the earthen dam, but not enough for a solid line. There were smalls groups of runners separated by the occasional solitary runner, like me.

The dirt was patted down by the previous night’s rains. Ideal. The mile or so of pavement per loop never got hot.

The photo above is the same view of the Boulder Flatirons from the earlier race photos, but from a few miles further east, along the East Boulder Trail.

Also on today’s 8 miler, the sliver of water you can see over the top of this cairn is the Boulder Reservoir – the site of last Saturday’s marathon. Each of the four loops around the Rez was a little over a 10K.

I felt strong though to the finish last week. I felt my hamstring tighten a little before 20 miles and slowed down for it but I’d taken a couple of SCAPs about two miles earlier and those salts kicked in. I was having to drink the aid station Gatorade the final 10K because I drank up my 500ml bottle of LMNT a lot quicker on this loop.

I ran the slowest miles of the day for the first 3 miles of the final 10K, but got a second wind and finished the final 3 miles strong. Overall, it was a very comfortable run. The right pace and good weather.

Boulder Rez Marathon

02 Saturday Aug 2025

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There are worse places to be at 6am than along the shores of the Boulder Rez watching the sunrise. True to Boulder running style, the race announcer called runners to the corral about 5 minutes before the starting gun for the full marathon – four laps around the Rez. Five minutes later, the three-quarters marathon launched – three laps. After another five minutes, the half started – two laps, followed by the 10k – one lap.

I met 50-year-old Keenan Haga, from Louisville, south of Boulder. Just when you think you’re a bad-ass running the Boulder Rez Marathon on what could potentially be one of the hottest days of the year, some kid shows up and says this will be his 83rd marathon so far this year. That he’s going for a Guinness World Record for his age. He finished in 5:39, 6th for his age.

The vibe was cool at the start, with the promise of clouds and pleasant temps. I had no idea how I’d run given my lack of training and the potential for good weather. The morning coolness lasted through the first loop. There was a quarter mile run along Coot Lake where you got to double-back and look at some of the faces of runners close to you. That became more fun on each loop – discovering my people.

I like the vibe of these smaller Boulder marathons around the Rez and the backroads. I parked right next to the finish line and setup my own personal aid station along the course, stocked with ice water, gels, water bottles and an orange – which I ate at the half. How many big race courses can you do that on?

I was prepared each loop for the next to become unbearably hot, but it never did. Despite not putting in the training miles for this, the cooler temps had me running much faster than I expected. It was warm enough that I would finish my fresh 500ml LMNT hydration quicker and quicker with each loop. I had to drink some of the Gatorade Endurance Formula from the aid stations to get through the 3rd loop, and twice as much on the 4th loop. Combined with a few S!CAPs and my legs held up well.

My gear supported me well too. My bucket hat’s broad brim would vent the air into a stronger wind, over my chest and torso, cooling me off. For sure, my legs tightened up on the final few miles, but I had a super good run. I finished in 4:25, a 10:08 pace and won my age group. It was close actually with 2nd place just two minutes behind me and third only five minutes behind him. I won that slate coaster for getting myself out the door this morning.

I Hope I break 5

26 Saturday Jul 2025

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I thought I’d try to run a marathon in the heat of the summer. What could go wrong? It’s next Saturday and I’m guessing a lot will go wrong. I could count on one hand how many days I’ve run this month. I could probably count on one hand how many miles I’ve trained. This isn’t going to go well.

But I have a plan B. I’ll treat it as a training run. I’ll purposely run slow as if it were an ultra. That’s called lying to oneself. I couldn’t run fast if I tried. But I will need to run slow to survive the heat and avoid a DNF. I’ve never DNF’d a marathon. There’s always a first.

Cool thing about this marathon is it’s four laps around the Boulder Reservoir – hence the name of the race is the Boulder Rez. Most of it will be on dirt roads. And there will only be a few hundred runners. Runners stupid enough, or fit enough, to run a marathon in the heat of August.

I do know the backroads around the Rez well. There are a few hills but no momentum killers. I’m going to keep a cooler, maybe in my car, along the course to store ice and my water bottles. Each loop is a 10K, so I’ll carry a single 500ml water bottle per loop rather than wear a vest. The aid stations will have Gatorade Endurance Formula which doesn’t have enough sodium to keep me from cramping, so I need my own. I could supplement the Gatorade with S!CAPs, but those only have 341 mg sodium and 21 mg potassium, plus I’ve never raced with them before. I’ll try them, but I know I don’t like gatorade so I’ll still carry a running bottle around the course.

I’ll be a little scared toeing up to the starting line, knowing I’m not conditioned for this, but it’ll be an interesting attempt. I bet I can finish if I run slow enough. I’d still like to run under 5 hours, because I’ve never run a marathon over 5 hours before. My slowest is 4:35. I’d be happy if I run close to that time. Too little, too late, but I am having a good weekend training. The pic above is on the East Boulder Trail. Wish me luck.

The Flower Run

29 Sunday Jun 2025

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One of my hiking buddies posted a photo this weekend to our group chat of a pretty flower he saw during his hike through an alpine meadow.

Yet another hiking buddy responded, “Post that to Facebook. The girls will think you’re sensitive.”

My first thought was, I don’t think he’s on Facebook. Besides, any girl that actually knows him won’t be fooled.

But I liked his photo. I absolutely love the wild flowers in the mountains and it made me think to take some pics on my 10 mile trail run today.

I even like the simple grasses when they get tall.

Closer to home, the neighbors mix flowers next to their vegetables in the community garden to attract pollinators.

I actually saw these out on the trail but got a better pic from the garden.

The hydrangeas are doing well in Karen’s garden.

The strawberries look ready for the squirrels to lunch on.

The day Lillies are out for the day.

And this rose appears to be surviving the heat.

The Summer Strength Plan

29 Thursday May 2025

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Here are some official race pics from the 2025 Bolder Boulder. The photo above is my favorite because it captures the gray mist of the early morning. Ideal race weather.

With nothing planned until the fall, I’m pivoting my fitness focus from miles to strength training. I’ll continue to run, but I’ll increase my intensity and time on weights. This will be a first for me. Ever.

I’ve started by adding 20 pounds to my squats and 10 pounds to most everything else. I kept my arm curls at the same weight but slowed them down by 3 or 4 times. This is an example of increasing the intensity of my workouts. When my focus was on strengthening for a race, I would go a bit light on things. I wanted to save my strength for my runs. I figure I have two or three months before I need to shift my focus back to miles for an October marathon.

Never having done this before, it’s hard to predict the outcome. My hope is that I’ll build more strength and that strength will lead to speed. Worse case, my legs will be fresh mid summer when it will be time to amp up the mileage. I do believe it makes sense for a runner my age to begin to emphasize strength training over running. It’ll never surpass running for me and I don’t know what a good ratio is. Yet.

Running in the Clouds

26 Monday May 2025

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A run like the Bolder Boulder 10K doesn’t just start on Memorial Day on and around 7am. It begins with dinner, and a play, and a spa weekend, Friday night. Don’t judge the sun-damaged skin. Not sure exactly when sunscreen was invented, but I was the last to learn about it.

I hadn’t run the Bolder Boulder in 8 years. That’s a lot of time to let pass by. There are new buildings on the streets and I’m no spring chicken anymore. I found my DC wave and waited for the start.

Worse part of this last week wasn’t that I’d only run a couple of days, it was that I hurt my abdomen. Maybe from moving a washing machine around, hard to say exactly, my Apple Watch and Oura Ring didn’t notify me of any unusual health metrics. They didn’t detect my injury. It hurt like a bad stitch on my left side. Wasn’t 100% confident I’d line up at the start. It hurt.

Karen booked the early part of the weekend at a swanky hotel and we relaxed. We began with dinner at The Rio with good friends and went on to see Carolyn play Rebecca in Our Town at the Dairy Arts Center. Carolyn played a character decades younger and made you believe she was a school girl. In fact, everyone in the play twisted your sense of time and space and left you thinking. Thinking thoughts you haven’t had in a long time. Thinking new thoughts. There is no one on the planet who could go to this play and not feel mentally awoken. Thanks Carolyn, that was a trip.

Make no mistake, Saturday and Sunday were fun, but this is a runner’s blog, so this story is about the 2025 Bolder Boulder. My abdomen hurt less after the 80-minute, CBD, deep tissue massage back at the spa. The weather at the starting line, at 7 in the morning, was typical, cool and wet, but not really raining anymore and just a light wind. Maybe the thick mist was rain. It didn’t feel to be falling, rather, the water droplets just floated in the air. Perfect 10K running weather, like running in the clouds.

Eric and Brit, and Eric’s mom, Julie, all ran in waves after me. I never saw them, but they all had good runs.

I ran about as expected with an 8:35 pace and finished in 53:19.

Just a little 10K

18 Sunday May 2025

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With over 50,000 runners, the Bolder Boulder is not little. But I think, with the ultra and two marathons I’ve already run this year, a 10K is small in comparison. The Memorial Day run will be over just as my legs will be starting to warm up.

The photos are from the last time I ran this in 2017. I finished in 45:29 – a 7:20 pace. My fastest Bolder Boulder was in 1990 in 41:11. A lifetime ago. I’ve run twelve Bolder Boulders to date.

I won’t be running a 7:20 pace this year. And I can’t say how hard I’ll try to run but I’m pretty curious to know if I have any speed. My 9 minute marathon pace would have me finish under 60 minutes. I’ll be happy if I can run close to an 8 minute pace and if I could finish under 50 minutes.

Mother’s Day Run

12 Monday May 2025

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This was the start of my Sunday run. It might not look it, but the horizon is a half mile-long hill. I take it as my warmup.

Sunday was also Mother’s Day. Margot had a sleep-over with her Coco so that her mother could have the day.

I typically climb that first hill on this path carved out alongside the wider and more pedestrian trail by mountain bikers. My shin got bit by a sotol near the top of the hill.

I ran without a watch today, something I rarely do anymore. It made for such a better running experience. I didn’t feel like I was on the clock when stopping to take photos.

I kept my run short today, as well as Saturday’s run. This weekend was my first running since the Colorado Marathon the previous Sunday. My legs were tired still. If you know the East Boulder Trail, then you know where this bridge crosses Boulder Creek and you know how far I got before I turned around.

I finished a bit parched in the 80° weather. I carried a 500ml water bottle and finished it well before I finished running. Not having more hydration is what determined my distance today. I learned a good running lesson though. Carrying the water bottle is very likely what caused my forearms to nearly cramp in last week’s marathon. I’m going to start training with a bottle in my hand this summer, on the shorter 6 milers that I would not normally wear a vest or carry hydration.

Back to Margot, this weekend seemed mostly about her. Sugar Pine displays their cupcakes on a shelf low enough for toddlers to catch a glimpse of.

Margot said, “look at me, I’m in the flowers.” She then stepped into the flowers.

And Coco got some flowers for Mother’s Day for being such a good mother for the past thirty-plus years.

Colorado Marathon 2025

05 Monday May 2025

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For my pace and overall time, I ran this year’s Colorado Marathon exactly how I expected, and hoped. Everything else about it was not to plan. It was painful, not nearly as joyful as my Austin Marathon in February. I’ve lost some conditioning since then, not running nearly the miles I did before Bandera and I’ve gained 5 pounds. I broke 4 hours again, a major goal, so I’m happy overall.

The positive me wants to consider this year’s race a win. I ran nearly a half hour faster than last year. I’m getting better with age. Not too shabby, but man, this year’s run was so painful. I ran essentially the same 9 minute pace as my previous 2 marathons, so maybe I shouldn’t over think it, but two things; running that 9 minute pace felt much harder and I failed on my hydration plan. Just when I thought I understood nutrition plans, but knowing and executing are two different things.

I started off my nutrition plan well. I drank my first 500ml bottle of LMNT within the first 10K, but couldn’t down my second bottle before 20K. Might have been 17 miles. I knew I was failing on my hydration plan but I simply couldn’t drink more volume. Could be that I did too well fueling on gels. I tried eating two gels per hour and I got so filled up. In the future, I’ll only consume a single gel per hour. That seems to be my limit. There’s a lot of chatter out there now on consuming 2 or 3 gels per hour, upwards of 100 grams of carbs and more, but that doesn’t work for me.

It got ugly in the end. I cramped at 22.5 miles and vomited at 25 miles. My next event is the Bolder Boulder, a 10K I haven’t run since 2017. I ran that in 45 and a half minutes. I’ll be really happy to finish this year under 50 minutes. Not sure if I can but I’m confident I’ll break 60 minutes. Beating my age is good.

Marathon Prep

27 Sunday Apr 2025

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I like to post a story before a big race. Predict my time. Push myself by making literal commitments. I can do that now.

I’m running the Colorado Marathon next Sunday. Initially, I thought I’d try to improve upon my recent finishing times, but I’m not feeling it this time around. I definitely want to run around a 9 minute pace for a 4 hour finish time, but I don’t think I even care about finishing under 4 hours. Give or take 10 minutes and I’ll be happy.

I’d qualify for Boston if I ran 10 minutes under 4 hours. And really, to be selected, I’d have to run another 10 minutes or so faster than the qualifying time. I saw myself doing that at the start of the year. Knowing my conditioning now, I don’t see that happening. The downhill lean of this course will help but I haven’t been putting in the miles to run faster than a 9 minute pace.

Training for the Bandera ultra really took its toll on me. I haven’t been training hard since. And I doubt I’ll try to run another ultra this year because of the commitment that is required. I have other things I need to focus on. But May is a big month because I have this marathon next weekend and then the Bolder Boulder at the end of the month. First time to run that since 2017. I don’t like to run it unless I’m reasonably fast and can compete for the top 10 in my age. Not sure I’ll be that competitive this year but it’ll be interesting to run such a short distance and to see what kind of speed I still have, if any.

Margot was supporting both her parents in the photo above at the Royal Gorge Ultra in Canyon City this weekend. I got in my last big training runs before the marathon. I don’t expect to race fast but I’m hoping for a good run.

My Face Tells the Story

06 Sunday Apr 2025

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A half mile into my run. Hopeful.

Six miles in, near the turn around. I’d left my water bottle back at where I took the first photo, which added another mile to my run. And a significant hill. But I was here for a workout and only hand-carrying 500ml was already pushing the boundaries. This was a 1000ml run and today was in the warm 50°s. Without hydration, it would be a fairly short run.

After thirteen miles. It was a good run.

Dinner Stories

16 Sunday Mar 2025

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I saw a massive wild turkey on the trail yesterday. I often see wild turkey on a trail aptly named the Wild Turkey Trail, but this was on the LoBo Trail out my back door and was the first time. I’ve seen foxes and coyotes and deer, but never before had I seen a wild turkey on LoBo. They are just sort of stunning when they are that massive.

It struck me as odd, later in the day, riding in a truck with three other men, when one of them began talking about shooting and eating wild turkey. How only one in three are edible. Why there’s a reason Americans prefer chicken. For me, the conversation was striking because it was so unusual for me to see a wild turkey on the LoBo Trail and here I was talking about wild turkeys yet again in the same day. I mentioned it at dinner with friends later that night, proving that, like airplane crashes, these things happen in threes.

Another conversation at dinner, on running, stayed with me this morning. If you want to engage me in conversation, you probably know running is a safe bet. I can talk about many other subjects, but I don’t bring them up out of fear of boring you to death. I read so much non-fiction, some on business and the economy, I’ve subscribed to the WSJ for 40 years, but mostly on tech.

Lately, on AI. I don’t think I’m alone, they call it the US of AI for a reason, it’s a prevalent news story. My most recent AI fascination is on Elon Musk’s Colossus data center in Memphis – purported to be the largest AI factory in the world. It strikes me as tremendously reckless and moronic that he would not build a second data center for redundancy. His X platform just suffered a significant outage after a day-long DDoS attack. And he thinks he’s going to run the government’s IRS and SSA operations out of a single data center. Everyone thinks the man is a genius. I think he’s a dumbass. Still, such conversations can bore my friends to death. I recall being fascinated by fax machine technology 30 years ago and sharing my excitement with friends. I’ve learned since to keep my tech talk to myself.

Somehow the specific running topic was on running form and when does one start to feel good while running. The conversation went in a couple of directions, but I think running form captures it. Karen shared how stupid some actors look while running in TV shows. She referenced a show we’re watching called Surface, where the lead actress runs with her elbows wildly swinging above her head. We believe the director is trying to show her angst, but nobody runs like that in real life. Clearly, there must be at least one runner on the set who knows this and could contribute to the authenticity of the acting, but that person is probably in a probationary period and doesn’t want to be fired for challenging the genius director.

We talked about how running form doesn’t really change just because your thoughts and emotions change over the course of the run. I responded that it takes me 2 to 3 miles to warm up, and then I don’t think I start to feel fatigue until about 20 miles. Chris said 15 miles. It would of course depend on one’s conditioning.

My fitness app gives me countless stats. My cadence not only averages about 170 steps per minute, but it only varies by a few steps. My ground contact time ranges around 200 milliseconds. My stride length varies from .7m to 1.1 meters. It doesn’t matter what’s playing in my ear buds or how I’m feeling, my form is what it is and my elbows don’t swing above my face just because I’m feeling a little angst.

If I notice any deviation in my form today, you’ll be the first to know.

Running is Joy

01 Saturday Mar 2025

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I learned today that I’ve lost some of my conditioning. Or did I? I mean, today’s twelve miles on the East Boulder Trail was exhausting. I ran two hours of the two and a half hour run in heart rate zone 5, actually I was over 160 bpm by mile five – which extends above the zone 5 max, which is to say that I ran the final seven of those miles at or above my lactate threshold. So that makes me feel good. Otherwise, I have to say that I hurt through most of those seven miles.

Pushing my heart that hard should have hurt, so I’m not going to worry about maybe failing out of shape – feeling so poorly on this trail today. I had some good surges though. Sort of like the Austin Marathon where I surged on everything that even slightly looked like a down-slope. Today, I’d fall into a fast rhythm whenever the crushed rock turned into recently thawed mud underneath a bed of dead plants with the appearance of straw. A dream trail. The tactic kept me running in a fairly tight minute per mile range for the marathon, but both then and today, my pace felt a bit more erratic than the per mile metrics suggest.

Wondering about my ability to push my lactate threshold is what I mostly thought about on today’s run over the East Boulder Trail hills. The one other thing was the epiphany when I realized how fortunate I am to know what gives me joy in life and to be able to enjoy it. I know that running gives me joy. I’m grateful to know that and to be able to run.

When I got home, I looked at the WhatsApp photos of Margot in her first Ballet class. More joy.

Austin Marathon Photos, Period!

22 Saturday Feb 2025

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I deserve some time off. After waking up at 3am MDT to fly to Austin on Saturday, then waking up at 4:30am CDT, which was my 3:30am MDT, on Sunday to race a marathon, then flying home a couple of hours after my race, I was exhausted by Monday. So, with the bitter cold this week, I took some time off. I’ll run this weekend, once the sun warms things up.

This was my 4th Austin Marathon. I ran my first in 2011, which was also my slowest at 4:23. This was the coldest though, by a mile. I saw a woman run the entire distance wearing a puff jacket. I found the weather to be ideal. Many runners wore tank tops – I had mine in my vest and nearly put it on in the final miles but I didn’t want to slow down for the maneuver. I was in race mode. I did wear gloves the first 10 miles.

The photo above was somewhere in the first ten miles because I still have my gloves on. I drank my two 500ml water bottles in the first half and relied on the aid stations, spaced apart every mile, for hydration in the second half. Their BNP electrolytes contained half the sodium of my LMNT’s 1000mg, but had 50mg of calcium whereas LMNT has zero. I would lose ground at aid stations trying to drink two cups. Something for me to work on.

The boy running behind me here looks pretty cold. That I still have my sleeves rolled down suggests it was probably still only 40° or so, as it was most of the run. With 70% humidity, 40° in Texas is cold but perfect for a marathon. The oddest thing during the race was that 3 pairs of women ran past me dressed identical. That’s not the strange part, that was adorable. They would be wearing the same shirt and shorts, but not socks and shoes. Apparently that would have made it weird for them. What was odd was that all 3 of them would pass me by coming behind me from both sides, as if I split them up. There must be something about running as a team.

All 3 pairs of women had attractive outfits, but the only one I can remember is the yellow. Those girls looked like the sunrise. I remember another pair for their hilarious banter. We passed each other back and forth for much of the second half of the race. I could hear them speak when they ran behind me. I don’t recall what they said now but they reminded me of the two women (Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe) in the Netflix series, “Nobody Wants This” as they conduct their podcast. These girls were performative. One of them would randomly shout out, “period” and it was just funny. I thought about taking photos of these girls and their outfits for my blog, but that would have been creepy. The period girls ended up finishing a bit ahead of me.

I don’t recall the last race where I felt like I was in fact racing. I felt strong and steady in the first half but would catch myself getting passed in each mile of the 2nd half and respond with a surge. It felt like racing and took me back to my youth. I was never winded, always running under my lactate threshold, but maintaining a strong pace for 4 hours takes effort. It was satisfying effort, like one feels from working hard. And my form felt good too. So satisfying.

No injuries to recover from but time is still an essential healer and I’m just gonna relax before I do hurt myself and reflect on having run my first marathon in 8 years under 4 hours. It feels good to turn back the clock 8 years. I credit learning how to properly fuel and hydrate from my ultra training for my strong performance. That’s knowledge that I’ll keep, although I’ll have to maintain the training on gels and drinking because it’s not just knowing what to do but training the stomach to handle it. It’s not at all easy fueling and hydrating that much while running. My stomach was full. But those carbs and electrolytes fueled me to a 3:54 finish, top 10 for my age, and feeling good afterward.

Austin Marathon 2025

16 Sunday Feb 2025

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That’a a blurry photo of the capitol and the start of today’s Austin Marathon, but trust me, I was there for sunrise. The start was a little cool at 38°, and breezy, but my brother gave me the VIP experience by letting me warmup in his office building at 816 Congress. My brother Steve and sister Nancy crewed me. They bought me dinner the night before and was there for my every need.

They captured this photo of me after the split from the half marathon runners, around 12.5 miles. I’d worn my gloves until mile 10 but really, it was fantastic marathon weather. My long sleeve, alpaca wool t-shirt was perfect for the entire distance. The wind actually disappeared along the rolling hills of Enfield and returned downtown, about where this photo was taken on 15th St. I never over-heated today.

I have to say, Austin really is hilly. This course found every hill in central Austin to include in its route. There was over 1000 feet of elevation gain. That’s a lot for a course that only goes from 400 to 600 feet. I felt good about maintaining form and speed on the hills. I especially think I took advantage of the downhills.

You have to be ready to surge for those and I always was. Running good downhills probably made the difference today in my final time. I wore my ear buds, although I didn’t listen to a playlist. I was able to hear Siri read the chats from family following me on the tracker app. It motivated me to push my pace.

I felt good the whole way but had a slight slowdown over the hills on Enfield, and then of course I slowed down a bit for the final 6 miles, but not by much. I did a great job of maintaining a pace slightly under 9 minutes per mile for just about every mile. I’ve never run such a consistent pace. It didn’t feel consistent. I would catch myself slowing and put on a surge. It was a race of surges. I’d find someone to try to keep up with whenever I felt a slow down in progress. The result was that I kept a steady pace around 8:56 per mile. At least that was my finish pace but I never ran under 8:14 and I never ran over 9:19.

The crowds were bigger this year. Non-stop spectators the entire course. Being Austin, there were so many sites to comment on. The funniest for me was passing by a choir singing beautiful church songs along the Drag – the section of Guadalupe that runs by the UT campus. They were singing directly across from the Church of Scientology – Austin. Made me chuckle.

I was nostalgic running through the Hyde Park neighborhood. Speedway has really gentrified since I last lived there and the homes were so pretty. Climbing 11th St. near the finish was easily the most difficult hill of the race. It tops out on Trinity but that’s a false summit and it doesn’t really crest until San Jacinto. From there, it was all downhill and I made my target of crossing the finish line under 4 hours in 3:54. It was a good run.

Next up, ATX

08 Saturday Feb 2025

Posted by in Running, Ultra

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I usually train for marathons. I did for the one in that pic above. I haven’t been tracking my miles post-Bandera, but it feels like I’ve slammed on the brakes these last four weeks. Still, my weight is holding steady at 165. Ten pounds more than in college. 165 is as fit a weight I’ll ever get. I feel good.

As you can imagine, I think about the 50K of the Bandera 100K that I ran, before begging my crew to let me DNF. To not force me to run another segment. I dwell on the course when I’m running. There was a moment when my crew (Brittany Noel) lost track of me because she was planning some crew math for crewing Eric in her head.

I walked up to these people who were standing where race officials might stand. Nothing else about them indicated they might be race officials.

“How do I DNF?”

“You let me take the ankle bracelet off of you,” the lady said as she bent over and clipped the race chip off before finishing her sentence.

And just like that, I was free. I would live to run another ultra. An ultra with a trail. I’ll admit, Camp Eagle had a course. I saw some animal trails, and a few gravel roads. But a runner’s trail? There was some but you had to be looking for it.

While I’ve been training apres-Bandera, my thoughts query the neurons in my head like a dense neural network LLM on an inference cycle. Lately, the search has been on for segments of those 31 miles four weeks ago. Why did I reach the point of exhaustion halfway through?

Like anything, there is dense logic to all the contributing reasons. Top of a ranked list would be because it was my first 100K and I didn’t know what I was doing. I’d look there first. That led to running too hard, too early.

Followed by a trail I wasn’t prepared for, but out of the randomness of the weather, which just seems to be screwing everyone lately, was not the trail I signed up for. Did I just say trail? I mean course.

Then, I think it’s fair to throw gear into the fray at ranking number 3. I chose the wrong pair of shoes. I think the soles of my feet would have been less bruised with a cushy pair of Hokas. I wore my Bushida III GTX Sportivas. To show you the numbers, the Hoka Speedboat 5 has a stack height of 32mm, which is considered soft, versus the Sportiva Bushidas with a stack height of 19mm and considered firm. I won’t throw those Bushidas under the bus though. I could run in them for distances under a 50K. Their grip was unbelievable.

As I approached one rock, oh, let’s be honest, a 2 foot wall, or cliff if that term can apply to mid-thigh-level jumps. I planted my left foot on an adjacent wall of similar proportions, and half-way up, I launched my right foot over the top half of the rock I ultimately needed to climb. It had a Kung-Fu wall climbing vibe. That move alone was such a joyful athletic feat that it was worth running the entire 31 miles, so I think of that memory a lot. Back to point, those shoes had incomparable grip, but they weren’t very soft. My feet felt as if they’d walked over 31 miles of burning coals. They were toast.

More important than poor decisions on gear was that my inexperience led me to run too hard too early. I ran almost the entire distance in heart rate zones 4 and 5. Sure, that’s partly from getting caught up in the excitement of the other trail runners. The narrowness of a single-track trail, course, doesn’t allow for an easy pass and you feel trapped into running fast with runners on your back. You can’t help but keep pace with those around. That single-track trap is avoided by starting in the very back of the corral. I’ll do that next time.

My thoughts are now turning toward the Austin Marathon next Sunday. I didn’t maintain the miles, but I did a really good job retaining my bi-weekly strength and steam sauna routine. My core is still as strong if not better than last fall’s Boulder Marathon. The core can compensate for weak legs, and I don’t think my legs are necessarily any weaker. My goal for the run will be to break four hours. I was on track for that finish time last fall but let myself get low on electrolytes. I demonstrated proficiency in the hydration game on the Bandera run. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t crowed on and on about the absolute unrunability of that course. There were some wins that have me happy and that knowledge will power me through the Austin Marathon.

My other thoughts are on how I’ll run. Hard? Or easy? I’m motivated to break 4 hours and I think I’ll have to push myself a bit, maybe some heart rate zone 4 running. Maybe some zone 5 if I push the rolling hills over Enfield and W. 15th St. Not sure how I’ll run the first 3 miles up South Congress, but I plan to run strong, with gravity, down South First, for the next 3 miles.

That will average out the first 6 miles to maybe an 8 minute pace. That would be too fast for me to run the first 10K of any other marathon, but if you’re in a mood to race, and Austin usually gives me a race vibe, then you want to optimize your pace and form for a surge down South First. Whether or not I’ll maintain a strong pace will become known to me once I hit the rolling hills. Hills are really good at giving bio-feedback. If I run those strong, I might remain strong up to 20 miles. I’m too experienced to ever try predicting anything after 20 miles in a marathon, so that’s my race plan.

My marathon story below began at 16 years of age. My finish times have been slower but trending faster post-apocalypse.

Marathon History

1978    Dallas White Rock (1)          Unknown

1980    Dallas White Rock (2)          3:08

***30 years***

2010    Denver Marathon (1)            3:36 

2011    Austin Marathon (1)             4:23 

2012    Denver Marathon (2)            3:48 

2012    Boulder Marathon (1)           3:58 

2013    Steamboat Springs                4:13 

2013    Denver Marathon (3)            3:47 

2014    Austin Marathon (2)              3:45 

2014    Denver Marathon (4)             3:31

2015    Austin Marathon (3)              3:39

2015    Boulder Marathon (2)            3:30 

2015    Denver Marathon (5)             4:05 

2017    Colorado Marathon  (1)         3:42

***Apocalypse***

2021    Boulder Marathon (3)            4:35

2023    Boulder Marathon (4)            4:30

2024    Colorado Marathon (2)          4:23

2024    Boulder Marathon (5)            4:03

2025    Austin Marathon (4)               3:

Bushwhacking Bandera

17 Friday Jan 2025

Posted by in Britt&Eric, Running, Ultra

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I bushwhacked my first 100K last weekend. Well, 50K, I DNF’d after the first 31 mile loop. It was the Bandera 100K, relocated 90 minutes west at Camp Eagle due to hard rain, a church summer camp with a lot of land on the Nueces River. I can’t think of any place on earth closer to hell than South Texas in the summer, but I suppose they make the most of the Nueces River.

That’s Eric’s race face above. What are the odds I’d be standing in a corral with my son-in-law to run a 100K ultra trail race?

I didn’t say “bushwhack” to start out this race report for nothing. There was very little runnable trail at Camp Eagle. There is considerably more runnable trail in Bandera, as I was told by several other runners on the course who’d run Bandera before. I fell once at 3 miles (Windmill A) and again at 8 miles (Windmill B). After breaking my shoulder last year training for this race, falling is sort of a nightmare for me, but these were good falls. The first fall was forward, just like the fall that broke my clavicle. But I performed the perfect roll. I ended up in a plank position with my chest sitting just above a baby cactus. That I could perform that roll was a testament to my strength training regimen. I felt good about it.

My crew was back at the Box Guest House in Bandera. The course relocation created all sorts of logistical problems. Karen, Steve, Susan, and Lucie stayed back in town with Liam and Margot.

Brittany was my official pacer but doubled up as my crew. This photo is a few hours after I finished. She was happy I survived for her formative crew/pacer CV. She was quite good at it.

This is Eric, early into the run still based on his gear, departing the Windmill aid station. The ultra started out below freezing but warmed up nicely into the 50°s. Eric ran super strong, finishing 13th overall. He had a fall too and severely sprained his thumb. We both found our trail legs though once we got going.

Brit wasn’t able to meet us at the first aid station, but the setup was pretty good. I refilled my 500ml bottle with Tailwind instead of my LMNT. And I had enough gels on me.

These guys probably wanted to pass me. I got a lot of that. These official race photos all appear on some actual trail. I can assure you, this course had very little of that. I’m disappointed the course had to be moved, but there was so much that was good about this run.

I executed my fueling and hydration plans perfectly, the best ever for a distance race, and that will help me in my future marathons. I run the Austin Marathon next month. I drank 500ml of LMNT between each aid station, or essentially every hour. LMNT has 1000mg sodium, which is the max a person should consume. I know now that I need the max. It also has 200 mg of potassium and 60mg of magnesium. There is no calcium but I consumed a calcium capsule before the run and at about 15 miles. Magnesium helps the muscles relax and calcium helps them to contract. LMNT kept me on target for all these electrolytes except for calcium. Mortal is the only drink I know of that has calcium and would be my second choice after LMNT, but I’m also going to make it a practice to supplement that nutrient with capsules. I also further supplemented my sodium with a couple of SaltStick Fast Chews every hour. Although my legs were exhausted, I had no cramping issues.

I fueled with Carbs gels. One every hour or between aid stations. It contains 50 carbs, a bit less than SIS Beta Fuel, but 200 calories which is more than SIS. My energy levels felt fine, it was the weakness in my feet, ankles and legs that led me to DNF, even though I felt strong in terms of energy.

I changed into a tank top at the Zip Road aid station and felt so much cooler. I’d waxed my legs and arms and that allowed the sweat to more easily evaporate in the wind. So my gear selections were also a win. I’d even tried acclimating to the humidity by using the steam sauna regularly at the Rec Center. Might have helped, I didn’t feel overly hot but the biggest surprise, other than the nastiness of the course, was that my heart rate was locked into mostly zone 4, followed by zone 5. I expected to run in zone 3 and I felt like I was mostly there. It must have been the effort to hop from rock to rock. I did very little actual running, it was mostly a rock hopping event.

I thought my pace was on target. My watch died after 15 miles but I was averaging a 14 minute pace, which was my goal. I think if there was a flaw in my run, it’s that 14 minutes was probably too fast for me on this course. My overall pace for the 50K I eventually completed was over 15 minutes per mile. But for me to run a 15 or 16 minute pace, I’d need to mix in some walking each mile. Maybe I will next time, although I don’t expect there to be a next time on such a difficult course.

I ran for a ways chatting to Eric’s old college coach, Karl Poetzl, who lives in Houston. It’s such a small world. He ran behind me, allowing me to clear the rocks for him, which I seemed inherently quite good at. My trailing foot would often catch a rock and flip it as my leg moved forward. It never hurt my toe, a credit to my La Sportiva Bushidas, but it was so exhausting for my thighs. I think I ran with the right shoes for this course, but hard to say if the cushion of Hokas wouldn’t have been better. I’ll continue to experiment with shoes. I’ll wear Hokas for the 3 marathons this year as those will be on paved roads. Karl completed the 100K, 8th in his 50 year old division, just under 17 hours which qualified him for the Western States 100M lottery.

Eric had a strong run. Brit and I crewed him through his last 3 aid stations, He finished 2nd in his age division and 13th overall. He didn’t care for the rocks anymore than any of us. It didn’t allow him to stretch out his legs on the downhills which is one of his strengths. If anything, runners had to slow running downhill to avoid certain death.

You’d think I’d be disappointed having to DNF in my first 100K ultra, but I was fine with it. It would have been too risky to run another loop, and really, I would have had to walk most of it and might not have made the 24 hour cutoff. Nailing my nutrition plan and the training itself were both wins. I haven’t been this fit in 9 years. I expected to also be as fast as the last time I weighed 165 pounds, but that’s not the case. I’m a half hour slower in marathons now and that’s just age. But understanding my nutritional needs for long runs is a huge win. And being paced 5 miles by Brit was a lot of fun. I got to see her foot work – she’s a good trail runner. I think I can complete the distance on an easier course and I’ll try again next year.

Not Bandera

10 Friday Jan 2025

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I wanted to title this post “Bandera”. It’s the Bandera 100K. But it’s not Bandera. Not anymore. The rains from Thursday forced the event to be relocated 90 minutes West at Camp Eagle, along the Nueces River near Rocksprings. Meaning, I’ll have to wake up 90 minutes earlier than planned.

It’ll be more inconvenient for my crew than me. I expect a similar course, similar hills. Similar caliche soil that might clump onto my shoes if still wet enough tomorrow. And it appears to be about 5° cooler further west. Likely because the elevation is 1000 feet higher. But it will warm up into the 50°s. I’ll begin by wearing gloves but shouldn’t need a jacket, perhaps two shirts initially. The running vest serves as a jacket of sorts.

I typically blog a post before marathons, mostly to soothe my nerves, where I predict my pace. It’s easy to predict a range based on my conditioning, but of course so many things can go wrong with long distances that guessing correctly is partly luck. I don’t have any experience at 62 miles, nor this trail, so really hard to say, but I know what I want to run. I want to run under a 14 minute pace. 16 minutes would be more realistic and that might be my overall pace, but I imagine I’ll start out running a 12 minute pace for the first 15 miles or so. It’s hard for me to run slower than that unless the hills are tougher than I expect and I find myself walking more in the first loop.

I expect plenty of walking in the second loop. I hope not too much as I really want to finish before bed time. The sun will drop around 6pm and I hope to finish before 10pm, so I’ll be using the 800 lumen headlamp my pacer and daughter, Brittany, gifted me for Christmas for a good 4 hours. I’m comfortable running in the dark with a head lamp and I’ll be running so slowly by then that it won’t be a factor. I’ve printed out the chart below, an overly optimistic projection, for Brit to crew me with.

My Apple Watch SE won’t last more than 10 hours, even in low power mode, but I’ll be using it to track my heart rate. If I can refrain from too much running in zone 4 or 5, I should be able to keep my fueling and hydration in check. Really, unless those hills are a bugger, I should be mostly running in zone 2 which is a very comfortable pace. I don’t expect to ever come close to exceeding my lactate threshold. Heart rate zones are determined by your max heart rate, which is mostly determined by your age. I’ve tailored mine with my level of conditioning using the Karvonen method, which suggests my max might be as high as 170. Experience tells me though that if I breach 170, I might be experiencing A-Fib, especially if I instantly go from below 130 to 170. Which is why I intend to track that metric. I’m also doing it to make sure my cognitive abilities are such that I can read my watch and tell Brit my heart rate if she asks. If not, I should maybe consider a DNF.

You can track my progress here: http://edsresults.com/bandera24/

Trail Spirits

03 Friday Jan 2025

Posted by in Running, training plan, Ultra

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Sotol stands as a quiet sentinel of the desert, its long, slender leaves fanning out in a crown of green and silver. A hardy survivor of arid lands, it thrives beneath the relentless sun, its roots gripping the dry earth with tenacity. The leaves, rigid and sharp-edged, shimmer with a metallic sheen in the afternoon light, as if the plant itself were forged by the desert’s heat.

Running along the length of each leaf are rows of small, dagger-like thorns – delicate yet unforgiving. They trace the edges like the teeth of a saw, catching glimmers of light at their tips. This decoration is its defense, a silent warning to any who might venture too close. To brush against sotol carelessly is to feel the desert’s quiet bite, a reminder that even beauty here demands respect.

As the Sotol matures, its towering flower stalk reaches skyward, sometimes stretching ten feet high, crowned with clusters of pale blooms that sway in the desert wind. But below, the thorns remain, standing guard like loyal sentries, ensuring that the Sotol’s grace is not without its edge.

Oddly, Sotol isn’t a cactus, it’s a type of asparagus. The Texas type of asparagus that will take you out with its deadly thorns. I’ll run past 62 miles of them a week from now. There are many things to fear about running 62 miles. Death by a thousand cuts shouldn’t be one of them but at the Bandera 100K Ultra, the Sotol makes the rules. The Sotol is the master of the Hill Country State Natural Area. The trail is there to serve runners’ flesh to the Sotol.

I’ve tried to prepare as best I can for this challenge. Blowdown on my East Boulder Trail has added some challenge to my otherwise pedestrian trail. Its hills might mirror the Bandera trail and now I have downed trees to navigate. And I survived winds at the Boulder Res that nearly lifted me off my feet. Good prep for the Texas wind, which I expect to be a steady 10 mph. All good training prep. I completed my training today with 12 miles on the LoBo Trail. That gave me 100 miles for the week – the first time in 9 years I’ve pushed myself this hard. It feels good to know I’ve completed what I set out to do.

That statement might seem premature since I’ve yet to actually run the 100K, but with goals like this, the training is everything. A lot could go wrong next Saturday, but it won’t be from a lack of training miles, or a lack of studying nutrition, or a lack of training my body to fuel and hydrate over those hundreds of training miles. But there was one thing I’d yet to complete this morning. I still needed to pay homage to the trail spirits, and in Bandera, the God of those trail spirits is the slashing Sotol.

Turns out Sotol makes an excellent spirit in the form of distilled asparagus, 38% alcohol by volume. I had a shot tonight to mark the completion of my training and to shout out to the Sotol that guards the trails in Bandera that I’m ready. Having drunk its distilled spirits, I’ll be one with the Sotol next Saturday. I’ll be protected from its spears and destined for glory in the Texas Hill Country.

Sixty-Two at Sixty-Two

30 Monday Dec 2024

Posted by in Ellie Rose, Margot, Running, Ultra

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I ran 70 miles last week, the first time in 9 years that I’ve run that far in a single week. Today’s 22 miler has me set to do it again this week. I’m closing out the year running strong.

I got in 3 good runs while down in Austin, twice around the lake and once on the greenbelt. It rained on me in the pic above. That warm, soft rain so typical of Texas in the winter.

The Austin Greenbelt was the perfect prep for Bandera. It’s essentially a trail along Barton Creek and there are good sections of cliffs with rocky footing like you see above.

Karen and I stayed at my favorite place in Austin, her cousin Liz’s Casa del Sol on S. 2nd and Oltorf. I can run through the Bouldin neighborhood and reach Lady Bird Lake in 1.2 miles. Here’s some of the yard art from Bouldin.

Margot Fay saw Santa everywhere she went in Austin. Like a toddler Ted Lasso, she believes.

Ellie wasn’t able to join us in Austin because of her new job as a data analyst at Dish. She won’t have PTO until March. Our darling friend Wendy invited Ellie over to spend Christmas with her and Chase.

Ellie Rose and Chase have been best friends since grade school.

These two have been besties even longer. They were the hosts with the most serving a couple dozen family members Christmas dinner. Karen’s father golfed nine holes the next day.

Most all of us are in this dinner photo. I’ll see Susan and Steve and Liam in a couple weeks in Bandera – they’re my crew. Promises were made at dinner for me to run the 2026 Austin Marathon with Chad and Laura. The other Laura.

Margo Fay again, at her grandparent’s mountain home. I’m off for a second week. My only plans are to run every day. Today included cold 25 mile-an-hour winds off the water at the Boulder Res. Just more good prep for Bandera where I’ll run 62 miles at 62 years of age. Happy New Years all y’all.

Mud, Ice & Snow

30 Saturday Nov 2024

Posted by in Running, training plan, Ultra

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I consider the East Boulder Trail to be fairly pedestrian. The workout and any technical points come from the hills. There’s a nearly 3 mile section of hills that I run through twice, once at the start and again at the end on the return. Today’s 6 miles out, 6 miles back gave me a 6 mile flatish run in between the repeated hilly sections.

Add mud and ice and snow and this course became very technical today. It gave me the perfect 12.5 mile workout. Footfalls took thought. Such great training for Bandera.

There’s about one and a half months left before I run Bandera. My first attempt at a 100K. I feel ready.