Sunday, June 29, 2008

Another weekend, some more fun running stuff....

There is a recurring theme in my blog, I know. Seems like every weekend there is a long run, some friends, some silliness. Keeps me away from the mental institution, so it must be good.

Saturday morning, I overslept about 30 minutes, and did not get to go to Boulder Park to see my road running friends. Since I do the blog for RunnersWorld, I usually like to be there taking pictures and finding story-lines. But Kathy took several pics and I'll be able to work with those.

Instead, I was early for the group run on Turkey Mountain. We meet every Saturday at 7:00 am for a few miles through tick-land. (Just 2 ticks for me this morning!) We have had as many as 10 runners show up, and I suspect we'll have many more in the coming weeks. But this morning with dark gray skies and rumbling thunder a few miles to the south, we only had a crowd of three.We ran the red loop, snatching some of the remaining markers from the BBF as we went. Then, we climbed to the top of the east mountain and ran the 1/2 mile downhill bunny hill. Vicky had never been on this trail, and her and Greg seemed to like it. We then took the upper ridge trail north to Sitting Rock, and then proceeded west and did a little of the BBF night course from the 2006 run. I had not been on this trail in a year or more, and a couple of fallen trees have just about buried this forgotten trail for good. The Dr. Seuss bridges were still there, but little by little, the planks are rotting away. I would not call them safe at all....fun, but not safe! Then it was westward on some of the more obscure trails, overgrown with natural grass (weeds), and very slick rocks. It was a great place to stock up on chiggers, and to break a tail bone. Fortunately, I only partook of option one.
Vicky and Greg cautiously descend to Mooser Creek.

After a 5.5 mile scriggly loop, I bid them goodbye, and drove across the river to run 4 miles with Dana. She has picked up her pace, and ran 4 miles in 44 minutes and change, even with a few short walk breaks mixed in.

Then, I zipped back home, showered, and went to a golf tournament with my sons Chuck and Jason. It was a scramble format, and we reeled of 16 pars in a row before birdieing two holes, parring one,
and bogieing the final hole. (!@*%&!%%#!@#!!)Jason and Chuck wait out a rain delay.

10:30 pm, I met what I thought was gonna be 6-7 friends to run a night run on the Turnpike trail. Instead, 14 runners showed up, most of them TATURs, and most of them running 14 miles into the night.From left to right: Johnny, Brad, Ken S., Susan, Brian, Cindy, Carmie, T Z pouring water on Dan, Caroline, Rob, Kathy, and Boy Dana. Deon is missing….maybe he was taking the picture?

Temps were in the mid 70s, and humidity felt like it was in the mid nineties. I had the soaked-shorts thing going on after only a mile. Despite having run 9.5 miles in the morning, I felt fresh, and ran like a kid with new sneakers. There are a few nice hills on the Creek, and some peeps ran them, and some walked.
We had an ice chest stashed at 4 miles out that we also hit on the return trip, and at 7 miles out at the turn-around.T Z gives Tatur Uno a geriatric supplement drink to wash his Geritol down.

Special thanks to Cindy's husband who sagged for us and offered a taxi service for those bailing at 7 miles.

For another report from Brad, click here: Brad's blog

After our 14 miles, Rob and I ran for another 12.5 miles just to say we had ran a marathon, We did manage to finish under 6 hours including our stops at the ice chests.
Kathy caught completely off guard by the photographer.

Rob jams to his Hannah Montana tunes.

Deon, lost in space.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Sri Chimnoy

Sri Chimnoy Website


Check this website out. (You'll have to copy and paste the above link into your browser since I cannot figure out how to make it a live link.)
((Edit: Brian has shown me a fool proof way to paste a live link. This is good, because there are few fools as foolish as me!!))
The Sri Chinmoy is a 3,100 mile race in NYC, in which several runners slightly crazier than me run for days and days around a city block usually well over 50 miles a day. Many of them are cranking out 70+ miles per day.After 48-55 days, they will have finished what amounts to 5,000K. This is more than running from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and all of it on city sidewalks around a block in New York City.

The Zombie is thinkin' hmmm................ NEVER!!!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Barkley Book Fair: One last pic! And a funny letter


I hope I am not shot for posting this!!!

A friend of a friend received this email. Brian Franklin who owns and runs Double Shot Coffee Company received an email from one of his customers because she knows Brian is a trail runner. Brian Franklin forwarded it to Brian Hoover because he knew we do a lot of runs and events on Turkey Mountain. It seems the day after the Barkley Book Fair, a couple of hikers ran across some of the remnants from our race.
Here's her email:

Hey Brian,

Wanted to see if you had run into anything like this before on Turkey Mountain... Yesterday, I went hiking w/ a friend. We do the blue trail first, which goes around the pond. There were some taped-off areas where it was muddy, but no big deal. Then, we did the yellow trail,which I think is called the Ridge Trail. So, Lisa and I always go up more in the middle and come back more on the 'ridge' part closer to the
river.

As we're going up on the yellow trail, it's really overgrown, and I kept noticing books on the ground. I thought that it was weird because it seemed like the worst place to read a book, but if you want to sit there and really get a good case of poison ivy while reading, go ahead.Anyway, we got almost to the point on the trail where you turn around,and there is some orange tape blocking the path and a spray-painted arrow pointing more toward the middle, so pointing to the left, where we would normally go to the right.

I wanted to just ignore the tape and keep going to the right, but Lisa was worried that the trail was too muddy to pass. We started to the right, and there was a Stephen King book on the ground called 'The Long Walk', right past the arrow, which totally freaked me out that I was walking right into some murderer's trap, and would be like every white girl in horror movies.

We decided to go back on the trail that we came up on. So, as we're on our way back, I noticed that all of the books are Stephen King or other creepy murder books, like one was called something like 'Death Plan' and the books are in lying in spray-painted circles, the same spray paint that was the diversion arrow.

Is this weird? Is it just some goofy kids? What do you think?



I emailed both Brian and Molly and all was explained. I did ask Molly for her permission to post her letter. Now, I'm out the door to pull the rest of the ribbons and what's left of the books!

Monday, June 23, 2008

As promised, the BBF day run report!

I have a ton of great pics from the Barkley Book Fair day run, and will post them this evening!!!

As promised, and thanks to the brilliant photography skills of Kathy Hoover and the shameless swiping of some brilliantly written text from the TATUR website, here is the Barkley Book Fair day run report.

19 runners stepped up to the starting line to run a slightly modified course.Mileages marked on long used maps all these years have been found to be a little long since everyone and their Labrador Retriever wears some sort of a Garmin now. The day loop that I have used for the 1st 2 years was really only about 4 miles long (but still seemed like 6!) So for this year, I added a little of the Red trail. Therefore, I thought the course might be 5 miles, but actually turned out to be only 4.5 (yet seemed like 6.8935 miles long!)

Runners set....GO!And they were off on their adventure! After the red loop, and the 1st book,runners got to experience the roots of the Lo-chi trail....all the way to Brian's "I-want-my-Mommy Hill". For beginning trail runners, this was either a treat or their worst nightmare. The good news was that before they met this ruthless climb, the runners got to garner their pages from the 2nd book,and rehydrate with cold water and Gatorade! Then the CLIMB!After this viscous ascent, book 3 awaited the weary runners.Does anyone wonder why I am always curiously absent when most of the day runners finish?

From here on, there were a few little ups and downs, but no major climbs. Book 4 was at the end of the mountain overlooking the river and downtown Tulsa.And book 5 was on the shale covered trail on top of the ridge.
A few more twists and turns,ups and downs, and lots of roots and rocks,and finally the last book was collected.Candice....you ROCK!


Brian's report:
"The day runners finished up sweaty and a bit muddy. The first group to come through was a foursome of speedsters, Scott  Stumph, Katie Stockstill, and Anjeanette Leving.Herbst, Brad

The next group to come through the long awaited finish were the wonderful Drew clan. This group of young but experienced trail runners were Eliza, Eva, Margaret and Jacob Drew. This group has done several trail races including Cross Timbers and Turkey & Taturs. Several of them are planning to go to K.C to do a great race called the Psycho Psummer Trail Race.

Next to come through were Jeff Largent for Holdenville then a great couple named Todd and Christie Bullard. Following the Bullards were a group of five including Barbara and Kim Drew, Kim Jackson, Mark Crew and Polly Choate.

For many this was their first trail race. Candice Brown was one of the trail newbies. Candice was followed by two amazing runners who traveled from Enid OK to run in the Barkley Book Fair. Nikki Watson and Desiree Powell are not new to trail running but deserve the award for "Best Attitude" Both were among the lead packs during the day run and were only about a mile from the finish when they made a wrong turn due to some ribbons being taken off of the trees. They spent over an hour lost in the woods. We sent patrols to look for them, called their cell phones and were really starting to get worried when they one of the searchers, John Childress called to say that he had found them. Minutes later they came through the finish line with smiles on their faces and relief that it was finally over. They were yelling triumphantly that they made it. Not only were they not discouraged, they said that they were definitely going to do the grueling night run also."

I might add, only 5 runners from the day run ran the night run too. Kathy Hoover, Jeff Largent, Desiree Powell, Nikki Watson, and Brad Stumph. You are amazing!

Keep scrolling down. I have added a couple of details to the night run report.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Barkley Book Fair night run, and the preparation thereof



Where to begin? The 3rd running of the Barkley Book Fair has come and gone. This years race featured a 5 mile day run with 6 books, and a 7.64 mile night run with 10 books. Some of the titles were The Running Man, The Long Walk, Do or Die, The Atkins Diet, Don't Give Me Your Pain Elaine, Nerds Gone Wild, and Lassy.


12 1/2 miles you say? How hard can that be? Well, usually I take a half week off work to put the course together. This year, I worked on the course for a few hours Wednesday, a couple hours on Friday, and did not begin work on the course on Saturday until 11:00. I never felt like I would not have everything ready, but it was a challenge. Marking the course with pink and orange ribbons meant covering all of both courses at least once, and most of it twice to plant the books. Throw in dropping ice chests with drinks made for over twenty miles for me on Friday alone. And considering I was lugging ribbon, books, and a weed-eater for much of the day made this an "ultra" like event.

I started my Saturday at 6:00 am taking pictures for RunnersWorld downtown, and then zipped back up to Turkey Mountain for a group run with Vicky. We had 10 runners out for a few miles on the trails.

************************************************************************************

Then it was crunch-time. My nephews John and Jeff helped me all day with the course set-up. The day race started at 6:30 pm, and at 6:15 pm I was still marking the night course. Stangely enough, I was not at all stressed, but made my way to the starting area and gave my usual speech about the course before sending the 19 6:30 PM runners off.This year, I added a little loop on the red trail for the daytime runners. A misunderstanding between John and Jeff and me resulted in no water at the 1/2 way point of the day race, but I loaded an ice chest and drove down the new paved trail to an opening in where I could get up to where their trail would take them. One crisis solved!

After that, I had to fly over to the west side of the wilderness area to finish marking the night course. Special thanks to John and Jeff for setting out the day race to help me finish up with the course markings. I had several segments already marked, but just needed to tie them all together. I gave John and Jeff books and locations to plant them. Jeff and I ran and marked 2 more miles of the course before I needed to head back to the start to see the night runners off.

Second crisis....I had lost my camera. I hoped it was in my truck two miles away, and in fact it was. But not having it meant I do not have a pic of the group of night runners before they left. Brian does have a picture on his camera and I will post it when I get it. Somewhere around 9:20, I sent 20 brave souls off on their adventure. This was twice the number of night runners I was counting on, so I had to restock both ice chests, which I did not have time to do but did anyway. After making the stash, I ran like the wind (actually I did the ultra shuffle) 1.5 miles down a rugged trail to pick up on the marking where I had left off. I knew I was about 5 miles ahead of the runners, but some of them looked fast. I marked with an orange ribbon, ran 150 yards, and marked again, along with marking all the intersections. Fortunately, no one got lost too bad. There must have been one switchback that could have used more ribbons since several people spoke of missing a turn and trying to scale a cliff. (I kind of like that!) One mile from the finish, I took the course right up a very rocky creek bed. I had my eye on this route for a several months, but marking it was slow. Shortly after getting through this section, I had the front runners right on my heels. It turned out to be Alex, John, and Jeff. They got a laugh out of catching me, and I told them where the route was for the finish. No problem. 10 minutes later, I was to the finish line, and it was Miller Time. I congratulated the winners, and awaited the remaining 17 runners.Jeff, John, and Alex finished in 1:55:30.

The remaining runners cam in in waves....well, maybe 2 or 3 waves. I recommend that the BBF night runners stay in groups, and everyone did. 
Vicky, Brian, and Johnny came in next at 2:21,
closely followed by Steve Lee and Darin Maddox at 2:21:30. 













Next was David Wood and John Rahhal at 2:23. 















Brad Stump, Nikki Watson, and Jeff Largent, were right behind, finishing in 2:25:26.











A foursome of Kristi Perryman, Deanne Cooper, Shannon Hudson, and Kyla Rudd crossed the finish line in 2:58:15.


Kathy Hoover, Desiree Powell, and Deon Bean had headlamp/flashlight problems yet managed to stay on course to finish in 3:23.

The night run is different every year, as I want the course to be a surprise to even the more experienced Turkey Mountain runners. I like to show everyone a part of the mountain they have never seen before. This year, there were no caves, although there are still a couple of caves on the mountain that I have not yet used in this event. I did include the steepest longest hills I could dream up. Thanks to Jeff Largent here is the elevation profile for the night race.

Afterwards, we hung around until the wee hours of the morning, told our accounts of the race, and many tall tails and lies.Johnny and Jeff say cheese for the camera.

Vicky also had a long day and almost falls asleep on her feet!

I actually became too sleepy to partake of our ritual IHOP, and after we packed up all our stuff, I headed home for bed.
I'll try to get some more pictures up, after I raid Brian's camera!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Intro to the Barkley Book Fair

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Barkley Marathons is actually two races run on the same course, a 100 Mile Run and a 60 Mile Fun Run. It is held annually in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee sometime in late March or early April.
The course was designed by Gary Cantrell. His idea for the race was inspired upon hearing about Martin Luther King, Jr's assassin escaping from prison, and making it only 8 miles after running 55 hours in the woods. Cantrell said to himself "I could do at least 100 miles." Thus, the Barkley Marathon was born.
The course itself, which has changed distance, route, and elevation many times since its inaugural run in 1986, currently consists of a 20-mile loop with no aid stations except water at two points along the route and the runner's parked car at the beginning of the loop. Runners of the 100 Mile version run this loop five times, with loops three and four being run in the opposite direction and loop five being runner's choice. Runners of the 60 Mile Fun Run (considered to be harder than Hardrock) complete three circuits of the loop.
In addition to running, competitors must find between nine and 11 books (varies per year) and remove a page from each book corresponding with their race number as proof of completion.
With 54,200 feet (now due to course changes, over 60,000 feet) of accumulated vertical climb, the 100 Mile Run is considered to be one of the more challenging ultramarathons held in the United States, if not the world. Some say it is the toughest trail race in the world. Some say it's not a race. Some say these are not trails.
The cut-off time for the 100 Mile race is 12 hours per loop, and the cut-off for the 60 Mile version of the race is 40 hours overall, which averages out to approximately 13 hours and 20 minutes per loop. Since the race's inception in 1986, only seven runners (Mark Williams 1995, David Horton and Blake Wood 2001, Ted "Cave Dog" Keizer 2003, Jim Nelson and Mike Tilden 2004, Brian Robinson 2008 (course record 55:42:27)) out of more than 650 have completed the 100 Mile race within the official 60 hour cut-off. In 2006 nobody finished even 60 Mile Fun Run in under 40 hours. Best woman achievement is Sue Johnston's 66 miles in 2001. More than 30 competitors failed to reach first book (2 miles).
The race is limited to 35 runners and usually fills up quickly the day registration opens. Potential entrants must complete an essay on "Why I Should be Allowed to Run in the Barkley."


That, my friends, is the inspiration for our Barkley Book Fair. Check back here for more details about Tulsa's version of this legendary race! Like the Big Barkley, our event will have 2 races, a day run, and a night run. The day run will commence around 6:30 pm which should be plenty of time for even the most cautious trail trodder to finish before dark. The night race will begin after dark. I am proud to say we will have a nearly full moon to illuminate the occasional pink ribbon marking the course. I have been asked if the course is hard. The day course is medium to hard, with one steep hill to climb just before the halfway point. There will be water and Gatorade at the halfway point.The night course is different every year, and each year I like to throw in some new challenges to make it interesting.
Expect a few surprises along the way. Expect to get lost, but so far, we have not had to call "search and rescue". A cell phone sometimes is helpful for those who are sure they are in the Turkey Mountain Triangle.

I am considering scrapping the checkpoint in the underwater cave. Seems a large turtle has claimed this submerged cavern and sometimes he is "home" and sometimes he is not!

For the night run, which will be 7 miles +/- this year, I advise spraying down with some off or an equivalent solution as ticks have been pretty bad this year. I have captured and carried away 50 of these critters so far. You are welcome!

All things considered, I do insist that the night runners be experienced in trail running and night running. They should have a reliable flashlight or headlamp. There will be water, Gatorade, and maybe another beverage at 2 locations on the night course. There will be some sort of food and drink at the finish. TATUR will have a bucket that you can toss a buck or two to offset the cost of the food and drink stuff.

Come join us!!

Monday, June 16, 2008

A potpourri of pictures

This is a lazy man's blog entry. I have a lot of pictures that just beg to be posted, but being the storyteller I am, I always feel I need to build an epic around them. But today, I'll just toss them up and see where they land.

"Do I have a tick here?"

Truth in advertising!

Partly cloudy with a 30% chance of rain.

To find a waterfall, sometimes you have to get out in the rain.

One cool shirt!

Too much time on my hands!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

I played too hard this weekend....again. After dinner and an awful movie Friday night (Zohan) I hit the trails early Saturday morning for a few miles with a few people enticed to showing up by Vicky's mass email efforts.

Pictured from left to right are Dan, Aaron, Dee, Vicky, and Rob also known as "Oh Captain My captain." This nickname comes from the movie Dead Poets Society. Rob belongs to a club called the Dead Runners Society. Sounds like a fitting club for a zombie. Rob considers himself and I kindred spirits, and I consider Rob maybe even more zombie-like after this pic.

There was not a slow runner in the mix this morning. I actually did ok, keeping up with the spirited pace set by Vicky. I did take a good fall along the way, but as always, planted my water bottle in toe ground and rolled out of it. I seem to always end up on my back when I fall, which picks up a lot of mud or dirt and makes for more impressive stains on the shirt.Rob kicks me to see if I am conscious after my fall.

We ran the Snake Run circuit to Rock City, then headed north down the switchback of the Jelly Legs trail. It was somewhere along here that one of Aaron and Dee's dogs got separated from us. We backtracked a little, and then split into 3 groups, and headed back towards the lower parking lot. This smart dalmatian doggie had it's fill of trail running and had went back to the car, much to our relief. Aaron and Dee tool their dogs home and were to meet us back in 30 minutes, so Dan, Vicky, Rob and I took out for another jaunt. We ran the lower trail all the way to where it almost intersects with the new paved trail, jumped the railroad tracks, and enjoyed the return trip via the paved trail featured in last weeks Tatur Estim8ur. Dan had not seen this new trail, and was drooling thinking about getting his bike out on it.

Along the lower trail (which will be used in the Barkley Book Fair day run), Dan not wanting to be outdone by my fall, took a fall of his own. I was about 10 meters behind him as he rounded
a curve in the trail.
I did not see him fall, but I heard it.
He was up in a flash, dusted himself off, and resumed running. That rascal did get extra points for a little blood to go with the mud.

We ended up with 5 1/2 miles or so. Aaron and Dee returned, Dan left for some afternoon engagements, four returned for more fun on the trails, and I headed to Veterans Park to catch up with the RunnersWorld runners finishing their long runs. Click on the RunnersWorldTulsa blog for a report on the fun they had. That blog is definitely a rated G blog, whereas this one is rated PG-13. So let the viewer beware!


My friend Charlie finished an easy 6 miles, but his nipples did not fare so well. 
Can you say OUCH??? Tip for the day: BAND-AIDS

My friend Joe headed off the problem with a different approach.Just let 'em shine!

Dana and Kathy discuss running plans. (Right....I bet their talking about their no-good husbands! :-Þ)


I had gotten there too late to run with the group, but Dana and I did a little run/walk around Zink Lake.

Then at 10:00 pm, I met Brian and Kathy in Jenks and we ran 14 miles on the Creek Turnpike trail. It was humid beyond belief. Good training for night running, running on tired legs, and running when you're sweating all your electrolytes out. Despite all of this, I ran like I had fresh legs. I actually had a great run.

Kathy shows off her new manicure.

Brian peers into the creek.

1. Use trail with friends (got that right)
2. Store valuables out of sight (I think I did)
3. Cell phone (yup, got mine....Dang, I sweat all over it!)
4. Call 911 (Nope, my cell phone is ruined from my sweat!)
5. Curfew??? (Oops!)