Gear Review: La Sportiva Skylite

Going into the Heartland 100 I was still on-the-fence about which shoe to wear. I knew that the race course was all gravel roads, covering wide range in quality, gravel size etc… I almost went with a pure road shoe but after getting a bit more course beta from race veterans I decided to go with my fairly new pair of La Sportiva Skylites.

The Dizzy Donut Challenge; a race within a race

When I first learned about the Krispy Kreme Challenge and that an inaugural running of this event in Huntsville was going to be taking place in late November I was fairly excited.  The “Challenge” is very straight forward: Run two miles to Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen glazed donuts, run two miles back to the finish; all in less than an hour.    The Challenge originally started in Raleigh, North Carolina to benefit NC Children’s Hospital; in Huntsville the Challenge benefits the United Cerebral Palsy foundation.  In 2004 the Raleigh event hosted only 12 participants; last year had over 5500 runners!   

Unfortunately it turned out that the Dizzy Fifties 50km  was to be held on the same morning as the Challenge!  So for a short moment I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do the Krispy Kreme Challenge but then I got to looking at the possibility of running both events somehow.  As fate would have it, the Dizzy Fifties was to start at 6:30 a.m. (to maximize the amount of available sunlight this late in the year) and the Challenge to start at 8:00 a.m.  As the Dizzy Fifties 50km course consists of a short 2.3 mile “Little Loop”, followed by three repeats of the North (4 miles) and South (5.59 miles) Loops there was opportunity to run some of the early sections of the course and then go do the Challenge and then return and finish up what was left.  

So, the “Dizzy Donut Challenge” was set: run the first 6.3 miles of the Dizzy Fifties 50km course, jump in a car and drive to the start of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, complete the Challenge and then drive back to the Dizzy Fifties race site and finish up our remaining mileage for a total of 35 miles.

Just a short film I put together from a recent ride at Raccoon Mountain, Tennessee. Thanks to Paul Foster for shooting all the video and stills. Enjoy!

Raccoon Mountain Unicycle Epic Video

My next B.H.A.G.

I've been in a real rut lately; trying to figure out where to take my passion for trail ultra-running. I've finished over 125 ultra-marathons over the past 14 years and have acquired plenty of 100 mile buckles. Now it's time for something completely different; time to explore new avenues; time, as David Horton coined, to truly have a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (B.H.A.G.)!!

It just so happens that there is a 325 mile long trail right in my neck of the woods called the Pinhoti Trail. While there is already a trail 100 mile race there, I'm more interested in covering the entire trail system which extends from Flagg Mountain in Alabama to the Benton MacKaye Trail in Georgia in as fast a time as possible. I originally entertained the thought of covering the entire trail back in 1999 when I first moved to Alabama (of course back then the entire Pinhoti trail was only just over 100 miles!) I'm calling this quest the Pinhoti Trail Adventure Run. Plans have just been hatched so stay tuned.

2009 Heartland 100 Mile Run

The Short Version:

Even by Kansas standards race day was unseasonably cold and windy with near gale force winds out of the north east and a high that barely reached 40 degrees. Thus wind chills were deep into the 30s all day long and remained about the same overnight as the wind eased somewhat but the temperatures plummeted to freezing. The race course is a 50 mile out and back and so most of the out bound leg was either directly or indirectly into the wind! Fighting the wind was extremely demoralizing and I could not wait to hit the turnaround. The return leg was much easier having mostly a strong tail wind to guide me home. I ran the first 25 miles , to the Teterville Road aid station, with my wife Kathy, who would end up going on to win the women’s race in the 50 mile event, in around 4 ½ hours. After Kathy turned around to finish up her race, I continued on and ran right around 4h 55m to get to half way (9h 25m for 50 miles). I had a slower go over the next 25 miles as night had fallen over one of the more difficult sections of the race course. It took me nearly 5h 35m to cover those 25 miles. However I began to “feel my oats” so to speak and sped up over the remaining 25 miles covering this ground in around 5h 22m to finish 11th of 61 starters and 41 finishers in 20 hours 21 minutes and 33 seconds.

2009 Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival

(Hand made banner for the Asheville Mountain Unicycle Festival)

Friday Afternoon

Until a few days ago I’ve only ever ridden with two other unicyclists (and never both at the same time). On Friday, September 25th that all changed shortly after I drove not the Lake Powhatan Recreation Area a.k.a. Bent Creek Campground. I’d arranged to split a camp site with Ben King who’d I’d chatted with some on Unicyclist.com but had never actually met in person. To our mutual surprise we ended up arriving at the campsite registration building at nearly the same time! He had come from Louisville, KY and me from Huntsville, AL so it was fairly miraculous timing!

Product Review: Nathan Synergy Hydration Pack

I've been a fan of Nathan products for a while now, however my experience has been limited to the hand held bottles and light weight waist packs. I recently acquired the Nathan Synergy Hydration Pack.

I chose this particular model because of it has a fairly large capacity (750 cubic inches) which I like for long distance runs in the mountains as it allows you more than enough room to pack an extra layer, food and equipment etc... Even better, it has pockets in the front for quick access to gels and electrolyte pills. Another nice feature is the two large side mesh pockets which allow you even more quick storage for gloves and maps or ditch the hydration bladder and just carry a couple of water bottles in these pockets! Lastly I ditched the waist packs a long time ago because I just don't like that constant pressure around my midsection (too each their own) and what is great about the Nathan Synergy Hydration Pack is that it is actually a vest. No waist strap; you put it on like you would a vest and it has several adjustment points on either side and in the middle of the front. I thought it might bounce around quite a bit on steep, technical downhills; I was wrong! It fits very well and doesn't bounce a bit! Now this particular model comes with the unique dual chamber Synergy bladder that allows you to carry two different fluids at the same time and included is a potency dial that allows you to manually adjust the blending of the liquids before they reach the end of the tube (and your mouth :) ). This is pretty ingenious technology, but with all the tubes and parts it is a bit complicated. I personally prefer a much simpler bladder. However this pack is great and a welcome addition; my new favorite pack!