Ok, here is the full monty. RunnersWorld and TATUR took about 40 people to Huntsville Texas to run or support this trail race. This was my 3rd year to run it, and this year was to be an easy time, running again with Dana and Bobby who was doing his 1st ULTRA just 3 weeks after doing his 1st marathon! Dana had high hopes of 1. breaking 8 hours, or 2. breaking 9 hours, and 3. beating her time of 10:12 last year. I knew 2 of her 3 goals were a pretty sure bet.
Another friend, Bob Lovelace, ran with us and the 4 of us made a great team, chatting all along the way.
But as I always seem to do, let me digress a little. There was to be about a 10 car caravan leaving out of Tulsa at 4:00 am Friday morning. T Z is not that much of a morning person, and neither is Dana, so we rebelled and slept in until about 6:30. It turns out that the 10 car caravan ended up as a 5 member carpool in a nice large Toyota Sequoia. But Bobby and Susan decided to follow us on the long journey to Houston, so we had a 2 car train. My nephews John and Jeff went with us, and Jeff ran his 1st 50K. John was limited to cheer-leading and aid station duties as his knee is still acting up a little.
Along the way, Bobby realized he had forgot to bring his Vespa, a supplement he takes that is made from a bunch of stuff like royal jelly and wasp extract.
We were way to far away to make a trip back, and we figured he could find some at a store in Dallas or Houston. I googled to find a store in Dallas and Houston and no one had ever heard of it. Dana was worried that Bobby would be a little bothered that he did not have it since he had used it all during his training. I kept making phone calls and finally called Vespa headquarters. Nothing like going straight to the top. The person on the other end of the phone seemed like a regular Joe, and said he would do his best to accommodate us, even offering to send us some product overnight to our hotel. But of course, our race started early in the morning. He took my cell # and about an hour later, he called back and had located 5 pouches in Houston, and gave us the number and address. All was well, or so we thought.
Traffic along the way through Dallas was awful. Houston's traffic was just as bad. The interstate between was backed up in two different places due to road construction and a bad auto accident. We were beginning to run out of time. My Jeep had GPS, and we programmed it to take us right to the bike shop where we were to get out Vespa. But it was right in the middle of a very bad area. The girls were a little antsy about being here. Well, so were Bobby and I. We kept circling the block but just could not find the bike store. There was a long old beat up block of metal warehouses with security bars and barbed wire chain link fences. I called the store owner and he assured me the shop was right on the corner. So, I got out of the Jeep and walked right to the metal building all the while looking for some sort of a front entrance.
Behind this locked metal fence was the front door to an old warehouse where a bike garage was. This guy was a bicycle mechanic and a very good one no doubt. But best of all, he had Bobby's Vespa and was glad to sell it to us at a slightly inflated price.
Well, then it was hustle time to get to the expo to pick up our packets, sign up some friends, and partake of the nice pasta dinner. Traffic was so bad, that we were sure to be late. But somehow, I made a wrong turn and got on some other expressway and it took us a few miles out of the way but we had no traffic tie-ups at all. Made it there with time to spare! Did not get any pics at the expo, but let me say....the swag at Sunmart is awesome. First off, you get a nice huge canvas sports bag, and then you proceed to fill it with a tech shirt, a tech hat, a note book, sunglasses, a rain poncho, stuffed toys, a manicure kit, body glide, and I am sure there is more. All the bags we had to pick up made for a heavy load.
Slept well in Huntsville at an overpriced Super 8, and made it early to the race area in Huntsville State Park.
The picture was grainy, and so was my throat. Sinuses were acting up and my throat was raw, and tended to want to stick shut. However, this did not really pose a problem during the race. I sipped water all day long, but ran fairly dehydrated as I always seem to do.
The 50 milers took off at 7:00.
Kathy is all smiles....or make that all tongue as she passes by. I plan to give the 50 mile another go next year, but the 50K is a very relaxed run. I was glad to be running with Bobby and Dana.
A few more pre-race pics:
Glenn and Vicky are wired and ready to go.
Dee and Aaron are all bundled up like it's COLD....it was!!
Two first time ultra runners who just kicked ass! Way to go Jason and Lisa!
No first-timers here. My buddy Spud ran a super race and was 1st TATUR!
Roman snaps a shot of the back of my head. A nice fog was rolling off of the lake.
A couple more 1st timers Peggy and Beth from Oklahoma City.
Bob and his daughter Janeen were also doing their 1st 50K. They both did great!
There were lots of TATUR shirts to be seen at Sunmart. Curtis and Charlie wore them proudly.
Jenni, as well as Jason, Lisa, and Bobby were here in Texas running the 50K just 3 weeks after their 1st marathon.
7:45 rolled around, and they counted off the seconds from 10....and then we were running.
With around 500 runners, it was a crowded start. The first mile of the race was on the road, so it gave a little time for the masses to spread out.
The four of us started out maybe just a little too fast, but that's easy to do in a crowd of people. We slowed down a little when we got to the single track. Actually, there was a bit of a log jamb there, but everyone soon spread out nicely.
One of the cool things about the Sunmart trails is that there are several wooden bridges over the wetlands. I always love running over them. I suppose they might be slick and treacherous if they were wet, but that has yet to be a problem in any of the races I have done here.
The 50K consisted of a 6.7 mile loop, and then two 12.15 mile loops. You came back to the start/finish area between all the loops. Of the 31 miles, probably only a mile of it was on pavement. The rest was on nice pine needles, dirt, soft sand, or the bridges. There are actually no rocks at all unless you counted a chunk of asphalt here and there.
Bob and Dana leave an aid station and head up a slight hill.
Another interesting thing about this area is that there are actually alligators in the swampy areas.
I suppose a fall off of one of these bridges in the summer months could be a little scary!
Ok ok I do get a little carried away. The alligator thing is true, although it is doubtful you would ever see one in December. The gator pic was swiped from the web. Dana and Bobby did conspire to throw me in for gator bait for making them push the pace on their last lap! And the blood on the bridge was for real. I heard that Nels took a bad fall and came in with a bloody nose. Nels, was that your blood? Or maybe there WAS a gator attack?
Love these bridges!
And the aid station food! They were like full service buffets! Any snack you could imagine was there. And my personal favorite:
27 miles down, 4 to go!
Dana was tired, but DNF was not even on her mind.
More bridges.
It's crunch time. Come on! Only one more mile to go!
We crossed the finish line with 8:53 showing on the clock, although our chip time was 8:52 and change. Bob finished a few minutes ahead of us. He had a hip hurting and some nausea issues, and was ready to get OFF the trails. The three of us waddled through the finish area and collected our bling. They had nice hooded jackets instead of the usual Tyvek jackets.
Dana finished an hour and twenty minutes faster than last year. You might say she ran two minutes and 34 seconds per mile faster....and got a HUGE PR!
It was also at this time that I found Jeff to ask about how his race went. Since the course had several out-and-backs, we saw a lot of the runners as we went along, but we never saw Jeff. I guessed it was because he had went out fast and was at least 4 miles ahead of us after we had went 8 miles. Pretty fast....maybe too fast. Well, he told me he had been disqualified because he had littered. I was floored over this. Now don't get me wrong, I think they should remove ears of people who litter, but tossing a cup near an aid station is not all that bad of an offense, and LOTS of people did just that. I thought it very petty that they denied him an opportunity to finish, and was gonna raise an issue with the peeps giving out the finishers jackets to make them give him one. (Remember, I had just gotten through going 31 miles myself....not always thinking that clearly.) Well, everyone had their laugh....the joke was on me. Jeff had finished his race in 6:20, and actually WON his age group!
I hope John, Jeff's twin brother, can get his knee healed up so he can run next year!
He did have a good time hanging out though.
Look at all the goofy grins on these ultra runners!
Sunmart feeds you well. Besides the pasta feed, there is a very nice breakfast before the race, and then hamburgers, hotdogs, grilled chicken, baked beans, mac and cheese, tater tots, soda, hot chocolate, and coffee all day, and then barbque and turkey drumsticks in the evening.
I always gain about 7-8 more pounds....the week after thanksgiving at that.
For some race times of of the TATUR/RunnersWorld contingent, look in the post below.
Another friend, Bob Lovelace, ran with us and the 4 of us made a great team, chatting all along the way.But as I always seem to do, let me digress a little. There was to be about a 10 car caravan leaving out of Tulsa at 4:00 am Friday morning. T Z is not that much of a morning person, and neither is Dana, so we rebelled and slept in until about 6:30. It turns out that the 10 car caravan ended up as a 5 member carpool in a nice large Toyota Sequoia. But Bobby and Susan decided to follow us on the long journey to Houston, so we had a 2 car train. My nephews John and Jeff went with us, and Jeff ran his 1st 50K. John was limited to cheer-leading and aid station duties as his knee is still acting up a little.
Along the way, Bobby realized he had forgot to bring his Vespa, a supplement he takes that is made from a bunch of stuff like royal jelly and wasp extract.
We were way to far away to make a trip back, and we figured he could find some at a store in Dallas or Houston. I googled to find a store in Dallas and Houston and no one had ever heard of it. Dana was worried that Bobby would be a little bothered that he did not have it since he had used it all during his training. I kept making phone calls and finally called Vespa headquarters. Nothing like going straight to the top. The person on the other end of the phone seemed like a regular Joe, and said he would do his best to accommodate us, even offering to send us some product overnight to our hotel. But of course, our race started early in the morning. He took my cell # and about an hour later, he called back and had located 5 pouches in Houston, and gave us the number and address. All was well, or so we thought.Traffic along the way through Dallas was awful. Houston's traffic was just as bad. The interstate between was backed up in two different places due to road construction and a bad auto accident. We were beginning to run out of time. My Jeep had GPS, and we programmed it to take us right to the bike shop where we were to get out Vespa. But it was right in the middle of a very bad area. The girls were a little antsy about being here. Well, so were Bobby and I. We kept circling the block but just could not find the bike store. There was a long old beat up block of metal warehouses with security bars and barbed wire chain link fences. I called the store owner and he assured me the shop was right on the corner. So, I got out of the Jeep and walked right to the metal building all the while looking for some sort of a front entrance.
Behind this locked metal fence was the front door to an old warehouse where a bike garage was. This guy was a bicycle mechanic and a very good one no doubt. But best of all, he had Bobby's Vespa and was glad to sell it to us at a slightly inflated price.Well, then it was hustle time to get to the expo to pick up our packets, sign up some friends, and partake of the nice pasta dinner. Traffic was so bad, that we were sure to be late. But somehow, I made a wrong turn and got on some other expressway and it took us a few miles out of the way but we had no traffic tie-ups at all. Made it there with time to spare! Did not get any pics at the expo, but let me say....the swag at Sunmart is awesome. First off, you get a nice huge canvas sports bag, and then you proceed to fill it with a tech shirt, a tech hat, a note book, sunglasses, a rain poncho, stuffed toys, a manicure kit, body glide, and I am sure there is more. All the bags we had to pick up made for a heavy load.
Slept well in Huntsville at an overpriced Super 8, and made it early to the race area in Huntsville State Park.
The picture was grainy, and so was my throat. Sinuses were acting up and my throat was raw, and tended to want to stick shut. However, this did not really pose a problem during the race. I sipped water all day long, but ran fairly dehydrated as I always seem to do.The 50 milers took off at 7:00.
Kathy is all smiles....or make that all tongue as she passes by. I plan to give the 50 mile another go next year, but the 50K is a very relaxed run. I was glad to be running with Bobby and Dana.A few more pre-race pics:
Glenn and Vicky are wired and ready to go.
Dee and Aaron are all bundled up like it's COLD....it was!!
Two first time ultra runners who just kicked ass! Way to go Jason and Lisa!
No first-timers here. My buddy Spud ran a super race and was 1st TATUR!
Roman snaps a shot of the back of my head. A nice fog was rolling off of the lake.
A couple more 1st timers Peggy and Beth from Oklahoma City.
Bob and his daughter Janeen were also doing their 1st 50K. They both did great!
There were lots of TATUR shirts to be seen at Sunmart. Curtis and Charlie wore them proudly.
Jenni, as well as Jason, Lisa, and Bobby were here in Texas running the 50K just 3 weeks after their 1st marathon.7:45 rolled around, and they counted off the seconds from 10....and then we were running.
With around 500 runners, it was a crowded start. The first mile of the race was on the road, so it gave a little time for the masses to spread out.
The four of us started out maybe just a little too fast, but that's easy to do in a crowd of people. We slowed down a little when we got to the single track. Actually, there was a bit of a log jamb there, but everyone soon spread out nicely.
One of the cool things about the Sunmart trails is that there are several wooden bridges over the wetlands. I always love running over them. I suppose they might be slick and treacherous if they were wet, but that has yet to be a problem in any of the races I have done here.The 50K consisted of a 6.7 mile loop, and then two 12.15 mile loops. You came back to the start/finish area between all the loops. Of the 31 miles, probably only a mile of it was on pavement. The rest was on nice pine needles, dirt, soft sand, or the bridges. There are actually no rocks at all unless you counted a chunk of asphalt here and there.
Bob and Dana leave an aid station and head up a slight hill.Another interesting thing about this area is that there are actually alligators in the swampy areas.
I suppose a fall off of one of these bridges in the summer months could be a little scary!
Ok ok I do get a little carried away. The alligator thing is true, although it is doubtful you would ever see one in December. The gator pic was swiped from the web. Dana and Bobby did conspire to throw me in for gator bait for making them push the pace on their last lap! And the blood on the bridge was for real. I heard that Nels took a bad fall and came in with a bloody nose. Nels, was that your blood? Or maybe there WAS a gator attack?
Love these bridges!
And the aid station food! They were like full service buffets! Any snack you could imagine was there. And my personal favorite:
27 miles down, 4 to go!
Dana was tired, but DNF was not even on her mind.
More bridges.
It's crunch time. Come on! Only one more mile to go!We crossed the finish line with 8:53 showing on the clock, although our chip time was 8:52 and change. Bob finished a few minutes ahead of us. He had a hip hurting and some nausea issues, and was ready to get OFF the trails. The three of us waddled through the finish area and collected our bling. They had nice hooded jackets instead of the usual Tyvek jackets.
Dana finished an hour and twenty minutes faster than last year. You might say she ran two minutes and 34 seconds per mile faster....and got a HUGE PR!It was also at this time that I found Jeff to ask about how his race went. Since the course had several out-and-backs, we saw a lot of the runners as we went along, but we never saw Jeff. I guessed it was because he had went out fast and was at least 4 miles ahead of us after we had went 8 miles. Pretty fast....maybe too fast. Well, he told me he had been disqualified because he had littered. I was floored over this. Now don't get me wrong, I think they should remove ears of people who litter, but tossing a cup near an aid station is not all that bad of an offense, and LOTS of people did just that. I thought it very petty that they denied him an opportunity to finish, and was gonna raise an issue with the peeps giving out the finishers jackets to make them give him one. (Remember, I had just gotten through going 31 miles myself....not always thinking that clearly.) Well, everyone had their laugh....the joke was on me. Jeff had finished his race in 6:20, and actually WON his age group!
I hope John, Jeff's twin brother, can get his knee healed up so he can run next year!
He did have a good time hanging out though.
Look at all the goofy grins on these ultra runners!Sunmart feeds you well. Besides the pasta feed, there is a very nice breakfast before the race, and then hamburgers, hotdogs, grilled chicken, baked beans, mac and cheese, tater tots, soda, hot chocolate, and coffee all day, and then barbque and turkey drumsticks in the evening.
I always gain about 7-8 more pounds....the week after thanksgiving at that.
For some race times of of the TATUR/RunnersWorld contingent, look in the post below.
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