David Crockett's Running Frontier

My next major race will be Across the Years, near Phoenix, Arizona, on December 30.  This will be my first attempt at a 24-hour run.   This type of ultra is a challenge to run as many miles as you can within 24-hours.   I hope to at least run 110 miles.

So my focus for the next two months is to gain speed and endurance on the flats.   I won’t do as much climbing, and will try throwing in more tempo runs.   I recovered from the Pony Express Trail 100 very rapidly, able to run nearly 50 miles during the following week. 

On November 1, I traveled a couple hours north to run in the 1st Dam 10k Run in Logan, Utah.   This course runs on Crockett Ave past my 19th century ancestral home of my great-great grandparents who helped settle Logan.   I had not been doing any road, speed training, but I wanted to push the heart rate up and try to do my best at a 10k.

I was suprised to discover that I parked next to my childhood buddy, Jim Kern, who had moved to Utah a couple years ago.  I had no idea and was delighted to spend some time with him.  He took up running since moving west and he would run in the 5K, his first.

The course climbed about 300 feet during the first three miles and then would be mostly downhill back to the start/finish.   I tried to push hard, but quickly discovered that my heart rate jumped pretty good and my foot speed wasn’t great.   I ran in about 20th place for the first couple miles and clocked the first uphill mile in 6:47.   A few people passed me and I ran the next couple miles in about 7:20 each.   I was struggling to warm up.   Once I hit the downhill, it took me awhile to recover, but I was able to clock the next mile in 6:57, and the final two in about 7:10 each.   At one point my shoe came un-tied, so I had to stop for about 15 seconds to tie it up again.

I finished in 44:29, in 25th place out of 136 finishers.  I ran only 17 minutes slower than my PR.  I was pleased to see that I placed first in my 50-59 age group.  They handed out ribbons for the first six places in each age group.   When I went up for my ribbon, the guys were surprised to hear that some unknown runner stole away the victory.   I heard one guy ask the announcer, “who placed first?”   “Davy Crockett beat you!”   The guys who I could tell were a group of running friends circled around me and shook my hand.  One guy explained that they had predicted the placement but, “you kicked our butts!”   (Actually, I think I beat the next guy by only 50 seconds.) One guy asked if I was the 100-mile Davy Crockett.  It was fun to talk to them.  The guy who finished 3rd (Michael Richards) kept joking with me.  “Did you come up here just to kick our butts?”   It was pretty funny.   I was glad to win, but I realize that I need lots of work to get my foot speed and endurance up for flat runs.   Jim finished his first 5k in 31:50 minutes, placing 5th in his age group.  Well done.

October 17-18, 2008 

Course Description

The Pony Express Trail 100 Endurance Run is a unique 100-mile race that runs on a section of the historic trail in the west desert of Utah.   This area of the country is very isolated and undeveloped, nearly untouched since Pony Express riders rode across it in the 1860s.  

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September 26-27, 2008 

“You’re not dead yet!!”  - Yelled from my crew at mile 76

This was a first for me, trying to finish two 100-milers within 13 days of each other.  I had recently finished the very tough Plain 100 and I felt ready to take on The Bear.  This year the Bear 100 was run on a totally new course — a point-to-point from Logan, UT to Fish Haven, ID, on the shore of deep blue Bear Lake.  The new course claimed to be nearly 23,000 feet and I have no doubt that it is.   Course designers, Leland Barker and Phil Lowry hoped to present a course very similar to Wasatch 100 in difficulty and experience.

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This will be a first for me, trying to finish two 100-milers within 13 days of each other.   This Friday I’ll be running in the Bear 100.  I’m really looking forward to run because it will be on a brand-new course that should be similar in difficulty to Wasatch 100.   The course will be point-to-point from Logan to Bear Lake and will climb over 26,000 feet.   There will be a ski lodge aid station about mile 76.  Gee, does that sound familiar?   Brings back chilling memories of Brighton Lodge in the middle of the night at Wasatch.   At about mile 79 we will pass into Idaho.  (Do we need to show our passports?)

If successful, this will be my 20th career 100-mile finish, and 6th finish for 2008.  This would also be my 4th straight Bear 100 finish.  They give a special award if you finish five straight.   If I wouldn’t have DNFed in 2004 at mile 87, I would have five this year.  So close….

I’m pleased to see that the new course is much more crew-friendly.   The old course required hours of driving on rough dirt roads.  This new course has carefully positioned aid stations close to paved roads making it much easier logistically to get pacers on the course and to have crew follow you around.  Kudos to Leland Barker and Phil Lowry for designing a course that looks fantastic.   A few months ago, I previewed the first 11-miles of the course and was very impressed.  The first few miles include a very tough climb, but once up the views are fantastic and the trails are a blast.   As of today, there are 83 entrants, so we will have a nice sized group this year.

I’m sure the course will have a few surprises, if I know Leland and Phil.   The weather looks like it will be fantastic this year.  It will be a little warmer than in past years, but won’t be hot.  It will be in the 70s in the canyons and 60s on the ridges.  During the night it will push down into the high 30’s, but we won’t see frozen grapes in aid stations like we did two years ago!  And it doesn’t look like we will see fierce thunderstorms like we saw three years ago.   The fall colors as always should be amazing.  Avoiding face-plants while gazing at the burst of colors will be a tough challenge.

Waypoints on the course, one per mile

I believe I have recovered from Plain 100 last week.   My legs feel fine and I have no injuries.  I’ve only run about 14 slow miles since.   I have no idea if my energy level will crash and burn.   I won’t set high goals.  My goal is to finish and enjoy the course which has a generous 36-hour cutoff.   It will be fun to have family and friends crewing and pacing me.   I hope we will all have a great time.   The Bear 100 is sure to retain its down-home, low-key, family feel.

Course profile

Strategy:   I plan to run pretty light again.   It looks like two water-bottles will work for the various legs.  I may bring my GPS to help me stay on course.    My main drop bag will be at Tony Grove, mile 51, where I will meet my night crew and pacers.   I’ll have my flashlight there, so it will motivate me to get there before sundown if possible.   I then will have plenty of help from crew and pacers throughout the night.

September 13-14, 2008

“Wow, you are fast!  Are you in some sort of marathon?” – Comment from a motorcyclist at the top of Tyee Ridge. 

Plain 100 is a very unique, tough 100-mile race held on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountain Range in Washington.   I would rank it among the top-three toughest 100-mile races in the U.S.   What makes it so tough and unique?   1. The race is actually about 107 miles.  2. There are no course markings!  Racers must use maps, directions, and navigation skills. 3. There are no aid stations.  No pacers are allowed.  It is a self-supported race.  You must haul enough food for at least 60 miles before stocking up again and must obtain water in passing streams.  4. The trail conditions can be very challenging because of dust that permeates shoes and socks.  5. There are three massive climbs (and descents) of nearly 5,000 feet and a total of 21,000 feet elevation gain. 6. The race has a very low finish rate despite a generous 36-hour cutoff.  There have been only 32 finishes in the first ten years of the race – 21% success.

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This Saturday I will again run in the Plain 100 in Washington.   Some feel that this 100 is the second most difficult 100 in the U.S. next to Hardrock.   Indeed it is tough.   It is actually about 106 miles, no aid stations, and no course markings.   It requires some navigation skills, self-supporting experience, and a lack of fear of getting lost.  

Last year I was successful in my first attempt at Plain.   I finished in 31:45, in 5th place.  I had a good race.   This year, I hope to do much better.   I generally know the course now and can spend less time worrying about navigation.   I believe a sub-29-hour finish in within my reach.   Since 1997 there have only been nine sub-29-hour finishes.

The race is loaded with experienced tough runners. Allen Belshaw of Colorado and Ian Mcllvenna of Canada are probably the fastest, but they are Plain 100 rookies.   Speedy rookies have had difficulty staying on course in the past.  Plain veteran Tim Stroh has to be among the favorites along with Arthur Martineau who is probably very determined this year after a route blunder last year that let me sneak in to grab 5th place away.  This year, including me, there are only four Plain 100 finishers in the field.   Other strong runners to watch include Tony Covarrubias of Auburn, Washington, Wendell Doman of Pleasant Hill, California, and James Gifford of SeaTac Washington.   All these runners are much faster then me.   Even thought the field is smaller this year than last, I think the competition is tougher.

Can I really improve on my time by over two hours?   I think so.   Last year, I wasn’t trying to race, I was trying to finish.  I teamed up with Tom Jackson.  Sometimes I slowed him down, other times he slowed me down.  At mile 42 Tom bonked bad and couldn’t keep up so I went on ahead.   This year, I’ll do my usually solo race running.   I plan to start faster and not be timid about the route.   Last year the dust cost me nearly an hour of feet cleaning along the way.   I believe I can solve that problem with more appropriate shoes.   I became dehydrated before Cougar Creek on the first loop.  That really slowed me down.   I’ll respect that long dry leg better.   I spent about a half hour at my drop bag between loops.  If I’m better organized, I should be able to swap out supplies and be on my way in ten minutes.   During the night, I didn’t run enough.   I should be able to push the pace with better confidence.   Finally, I became dehydrated on the last huge decent.  That slowed me.  I need to tank up on water before that point.    I didn’t waste any time filtering or treating water last year and didn’t have problems.

I’m still smarting from my Leadville DNF two weeks ago.   Stopping was probably the right thing to do, but still, all the focused training time and expense seemed to be wasted on moments of exhausted weakness at midnight near Fish Hatchery.  But what is done, is done.   That huge investment can now be rolled forward on the next race, The Plain 100.

My recovery from my fast 76 miles at Leadville was rapid.   I never felt very drained like I normally do after a 100-miler.  In a way, that turned out to be a tough 76-mile training run.   The week after Leadville was spent on soggy 45-mile backpack in the Oregon wilderness near the Three Sisters.   During the second week, I just couldn’t pull myself outside to run.  I felt burned out, not very interested in running.  I did go out for one 4-mile morning run, but the hip pain returned and I was reminded why I needed to quit at Leadville.

It’s funny, when you go dormant, worries come that maybe you are losing your conditioning.  Recreational runners at work were putting in more miles than me.   I knew that I needed to heal and recharge my running batteries.

On Saturday morning, I decided to go do an early morning run of Mount Timpanogos to test my legs and to rebuild my confidence.  I hit the trail at about 2:15 a.m.   The parking lot was full with cars.  This weekend is usually one of the busiest times on the trail as it is full of BYU students getting in one more adventure before the start of the Fall semester.  They start as early as midnight to make the long 7+ mile hike to the summit by sunrise.

My run went very well.  No, I wasn’t losing conditioning, far from it.   I pushed up the mountain stronger than ever before, passing nearly 100 hikers.   I was the first person to arrive to the summit.  My trip up was a fast 2:11.   I knew that I had a good chance to break my PR for a round trip, so I decided to go for it and push the downhill hard.   My left-over injuries from Leadville were doing OK.  The hip pain was just mild, and the tendonitis in my knee wasn’t terrible.

With about 200 hikers on the trail below, making their way up the mountain, it was a challenge for me to maintain speed and pass them all.   I felt strong and fast in darkness.  My foot agility and balance was good.   As I approached groups, I would call out loudly, “Hi there!”  “Coming through!  Coming through!”  “Thanks!”   Most of the groups of young hikers were courteous and stepped aside to let me pass.  But some who saw me would think they could just put in a few more steps on the trail before I approached.  It wouldn’t work because I was moving fast.  This resulted in a few bumps.   I would apologize and move on.   Many groups, especially the groups I had passed on the way up expressed words of amazement at my speed, cheering me on.  One girl who recognized my green light asked, “How many are you doing?”   “Just one today,” was my reply.

A dawn glow arrived in the sky above as I really pushed it hard during the last mile.  Could I do it?   Yes!    I finished in 3:35:50, breaking my PR by eight minutes.   My run down was a fast 1:24!   A guy at the bottom asked me, “How many summits is that for you?”   I replied, “That was my 53rd.”   He said that he had seen me on the mountain last year on this weekend.   Of all my 53 summits, that was the fastest round trip that I had ever run.   I felt great.  No, I wasn’t losing it.   I’m still getting stronger and faster.
What made me feel even better, is to think about my previous fastest round trips.   Those were not in the total darkness like this trip was.  And those also involved short-cuts bounding down snow fields.  For this trip, I did the entire trail in the dark.  This required pretty intense, alert concentration and agile footwork.   Somehow I pulled it off.

That little run re-engergized me.   I was now ready to focus on Plain 100.

Well, I gave it a good shot, but didn’t finish this year at Leadville.   As you can see from my splits below, I did very well for the first 50, slowed a little, but stayed ahead of my 2007 pace clear to Halfmoon.   I was still way ahead of cutoffs.

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August 1, 2008

For my 50th birthday on August 1st, I contemplated what I could do to celebrate this ancient milestone.   I figured since I was officially “over the hill,” why not go over some huge hills?   I decided to accomplish something probably never accomplished before.  I wanted to summit the three highest peaks in Utah and return to the trailhead, all in one day without using a base camp. 

The three peaks, located in the Uinta Mountains are:

1- Kings Peak - 13,528
2- South Kings Peak - 13,512
3- Gilbert Peak - 13,442

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July 19-20, 2008

I made a return trip to run the Tahoe Rim Trail 100.   Back in 2006, this was my 4th 100-mile finish.  This year I had my sights set higher, hoping for my 18th 100-mile finish and to do it in less than 25 hours.

This beautiful course is laid out on state park and state forest land, climbing ridges overlooking beautiful Lake Tahoe and various reservoirs.  The surface is mostly very runnable, soft single track.  There is about 19,500 feet of climbs, aided by many switchbacks.  Most of the course runs between 7,000-9,000 feet elevation.   The race website says, “This event is run in some of the high elevation alpine and sub-alpine regions of the magnificent Sierra Nevada Mountains. It begins and ends at the Spooner Lake State Park, which is at 7,000 feet. The highest point on both courses is just below the 9,214 foot Snow Valley Peak (which also provides one of the best views on the course). The low point on both courses is at the bottom of the now “infamous” Red House Loop (A Taste of Hell) at approximately 6800 feet.”

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